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viii, 162 p. illus., 44 (i. e. 22) pi., plans. 23™. (U. S. 
cation. Bulletin, 1914, no. 12. Whole no. 585) 


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1. School-houses — U. S. 2, [School grounds] 3. [Rural schoolsi 


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NITED STATES BUREAU OF EDUCATION 

JLLETIN. 1914. NO. 12 WHOLE NUMBER 585 



RURAL SCHOOLHOUSES 
AND GROUNDS 

By FLETCHER B. DRESSLAR 

PEABODY COLLEGE FOR TEACHERS 
NASHVILLE. TENN. 




WA5HINGTC»* 

CO\nSBim.ENT PRINTING OFFICE 

I9M 



UNITED STATES BUREAU OF EDUCATION 

BULLETIN, 1914. NO. 12 WHOLE NUMBER 585 



RURAL SCHOOLHOUSES 
AND GROUNDS 

By FLETCHER B. DRESSLAR 

PEABODY COLLEGE FOR TEACHERS 
NASHVILLE. TENN. 




WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1914 

Pa 



C*Aaa 






ADDITIONAL COPIES 

OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE PKOCUKED FROM 

THE SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS 

GOVEENMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

WASHINGTON, D. C. 

AT 

50 CENTS PER COPY 



0£C 6 1914 



CONTENTS. 



Fags. 

Letter of transmittal ,. vn 

Introduction (report on health problems by a joint committee of the National 

Council of Education and the American Medical Association) 1 

Chapter I. — Some conditions and opportunities in rural hie 7 

II. — Relation of the country -school program to the country-school 

equipment 10 

III. — Hygienic condition of typical rxiral schoolhouses and grounds 17 

IV. — The location of country schoolhouses 34 

V. — Orientation of the bmlding 38 

VI. — The country schoolhouse 42 

VII. — Plans for rural schoolhouses 62 

VIII. — Remodeling country schoolhouses 115 

IX.— Teachers' cottages 122 

X. — Consolidation of rural schools and some special needs in buildings 

for such schools 126 

XI. — Sanitary and convenient water supply for country schools 131 

XII. — Sanitary privies for rural schools 137 

Appendix. — A health program for country children 159 

in 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PLATES. 
(These Illustrations follow page 162.) 

Plate 1. The Crossroads School, Macon County, 111. 

2. A, Manual training under difficulties; B, Forest school students at work in 

the lath house in the Raja Yogi School, Point Loma, Cal. 

3. Domestic science, rural school in Louisiana. 

4. Industrial work in Virginia colored schools. 

5. A, B, Model 1; front and rear views; C, Model 5; front and side view. 

6. Interior views of Models 1 and 2. 

7. Model 3; side and interior views. 

8. Model 5; interior view and basement plan. 

9. A, Model 6; B, C, Model 4; front view, and rear view showing windows. 

10. Model 6; pergola and oper-air theater. 

11. A, A South Carolina rural school; B, Blackberry-Holmberg School, Dis- 

trict No. 1, Itasca County, Minn. 

12. Views of nu-al school at Cocoanut Grove, Fla. 

13. A, Masonville District No. 13, Yamhill, Oreg.; B, High Hill School, Dar- 

lington County, S. C. 

14. A, Rural school at Marbury, Ala.; B, Comet School, Isle of Wight County, 

Va. 

15. A, District No. 10, Boulder County, Colo.; B, Logansport, W. Va. 

16. A, District 28, Mower County, Minn.; B, Los Padillas, Bernalillo County, 

N. Mex. 

17. A, District 31, Boulder County, Colo.; B, Potter County, Pa. 

18. A, Rm-al schoolhouse on the plains; JB, Lack of simplicity mars the effect 

of an otherwise attractive building. 

19. A, Model rural school, Coryell County, Tex.; B, The new Willow District, 

Mendocino County, Cal. 

20. A, Model rural school, Kirksville, Mo.; B, Machinery in basement. 
21-23. Views of the Crossroads School, Macon County, 111. 

24-25. District No. 9, Canandaigua, N. Y. 

26. A, A nu-al school playground; B, Method of lighting. 

27. A, B, Types of Alaska schools. 

28. A, School at Chogiung, western Alaska; B, One.-room school in Minnesota 

altered into a teacher's cottage. 

29-32. Views of Porter School, Adair County, Mo., showing steps in the re- 
modeling of an old school building. 

33-35. Views of the Silas Willard School, Galesburg, 111. 

36. A, Cache-la-poudre consolidated school, Colorado; B, Washoe community 

school, Payette, Idaho. 

37. A, Teacher's cottage, Richland County, S. C; B, Schoolboys in Washington 

State transforming an old schoolhouse into a modern cottage for the 
teacher. 

38. Teacher's cottages: A, Missouri; B, South Carolina. 

39. Teacher's cottage, Washington State. 

40. A, Sketch for a model rural school; B, Climax High School, Pittsylvania 

County, Va. 

41. A recently patented device for indoor toilets in rural schools or residences. 

42. A rural school privy. 

43. Drinkinw fountain attached to pump. 

44. How well water may be contaminated. 

T 



FIGURES. 

Page. 

Fig. 1. Front elevation, Model 2 63 

2. Rear elevation, Model 2 64 

3. Floor plan of one-teacher school, Model 2 66 

4. Suggested basement for Model 2 67 

5. Sketch of one-teacher school, designed by J. L. Sibley 70 

6. Floor plan. Model No. 4. Two-teacher school 73 

7. Basement plan, Model No. 4. Two-teacher school 74 

8. Rear elevation, rural school designed by J. L. Sibley 78 

9. Main-floor plan. Model 6 82 

10. Basement plan. Model 6 83 

11. Floor plan, one-teacher rural school, York County, S. C 87 

12. Rearranged floor plan of building shown in figure 11 88 

13. Floor plan of model one-room school, showing seat room. J. H. Felt & 

Co., Kansas City, Mo., architects 90 

14. Floor plan of a typical old school building. 91 

15. Front and side elevation, one-room school, Hobart & Cheney, architects, 

San Francisco, Cal 92 

16. Floor plan of one-room school, Hobart & Cheney, architects, San Fran- 

cisco, Cal 93 

17. Floor plan. Crossroads School, Macon County, 111 96 

18. Basement plan, Crossroads School, Macon, County, 111 97 

19. Floor plan of No. 9, Canandaigua, N. Y 98 

20. Main-floor plan, Silas Willard School 101 

21. Basement plan, Silas Willard School 102 

22. Attic and roof plan, Silas Willard School 103 

23. Floor plan, school at Cocoajiut Grove, Fla 104 

24. Plan of one-teacher rural school, designed by J. L. Sibley 106 

25. Floor plan for one-teacher rural school of minimum cost 108 

26. Two-teacher rural school; connected by pergola 109 

27. Basement plan of two-teacher rural school 109 

28. Floor plan, three-teacher consolidated rural school with open-air assem- 

bly and classroom 110 

29. Basement plan of three-teacher building shown in figure 28 110 

30. Two-teacher rural school Ill 

31. Basement plan, model rural school, Kirksville, Mo 112 

32. First-floor plan, model rural school, Kirksville, Mo 113 

33. Attic plan, model rural school, Kirksville, Mo 114 

34. Reconstructed floor plan for an old school building. 116 

35. Same plan as figure 34, with better division of floor space 118 

36. Country school grounds, showing farm of 5 acres 123 

37. Cross section of drinking fountain attached to pump 134 

38. Well, incased with glazed sewer tile 136 

39. Form of dry privy recommended by Virginia State department of public 

instruction 141 

40. Boys' double toilet, with partition between the seats 143 

41. Dry toilet with pit 144 

42 and 43. Dry toilet with pit, and open-air urinal trough 146 

44. Dry toilet with buckets 147 

45. Section drawing of privy shown in figure 44 148 

46 and 47. Forms of the L. R. S. privy 150 

48. Section through concrete tanks and seat; L. R. S. method 151 

49. Vertical section of tank and house. Kentucky sanitary privy 152 

50. Horizontal section, Kentucky sanitary privy 153 

51. Vertical section, Kentucky sanitary privy 153 

52. 53, 54. Septic tank. Sewage-disposal plant for single residences and 

country schoola 156 

VI 



LEHER OF TRANSMITTAL 



Department of the Interior, 

Bureau of Education, 

Washington, June 20, 1914- 
Sir: Among the greatest needs of tlie rural schools of the United 
States is that of better houses. Most of the older houses arc cheap, 
ugly, uncomfortable, insanitary, badly ventilated, poorly heated and 
lighted, with no conveniences for school work, and with inadequate 
and fdthy toilets and privies, or with none. In many places aban- 
doned churches and cabins no longer fit for use as homes are given 
over to the schools, somewhat as outgrown, outworn, and cast-off 
clothing is given to paupers. 

Since the beginning of the recent revival of interest in rural schools 
miUions of dollars have been expended annually for country school- 
houses, and expenditures for this purpose have grown larger from 
year to year. Some of the newer buildings are large and relatively 
costly, but many, probably most, of them are built with httle or 
no reference to architectural appearance, to the local needs, or to 
the principles of sanitation and the health requirements of growing 
children. 

SchooUiouses are not only the temples which we erect to the god of 
childhood; they are also the homes of our children for a large part 
of the day through the most plastic years of their hves, the years 
in which they are most responsive to impressions of beauty or of 
ugUness, and when their environment is, therefore, most important. 
These houses should, therefore, be planned and built not only with 
the feehng of reverence with which aU temples and other sacred 
buildings are erected, but also with that care for health, comfort, 
and convenience which we exercise in the building of our homes. It 
is economic waste of the worst type to spend annually hundreds of 
millions of dollars in money for schools and hundreds of milhons 
more in the time of children and then fail of the best results because 
of bad construction and poor equipment of schoohouses. It is worse 
than economic waste to destroy the health and hves of children 
through failure to observe simple and weU-known sanitary laws. 
The places to which children come to gain preparation and strength 
for life and its duties should not prove to be hotbeds for the seeds of 
disease and death. The school improvement leagues of the Southern 

vn 



Vm LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. 

States have taken for their motto — "For our schools: Health, Com- 
fort, and Beauty." This might well become the motto for aU who 
have to do with the planning and building of schoolhouses. 

Within the last twenty-five years there has been a remarkable 
improvement in the school buildings of cities and large towns and in the 
buildings for county and township high schools. Many of these now 
approach the ideal. A bulletin of this bureau, American School- 
liouses, issued in 1910, has had a wide circulation and has proved very 
helpful to school boards and architects. The eagerness with which 
it was received, and the continued requests which come to this office 
for it, indicate both the need and demand for it. There has been an 
even greater need for similar help for school officials and others 
responsible for the building of schoolhouses of one, two, three, or 
four rooms in rural communities. To give this help the manuscript 
transmitted herewith has been prepared by Dr. Fletcher B. Dresslar, 
special agent of the Bureau of Education and professor in the George 
Peabody College for Teachers, Nashville, Tenn., with the cooperation 
of the joint committee of the National Council of Education and the 
American Medical Association on health problems in education, 
which committee accepted the material of this manuscript and sub- 
mitted it as its report to the National Education Association at its 
meeting in Salt Lake City on July 7, 1913. The manuscript is the 
result of careful and prolonged study of rural school architecture 
with constant reference to economy and the highest degree of utiUty. 
I recommend that it be published as a bulletin of the Bureau of 
Education, 

Respectfully submitted. 

P. P. Claxton, 

Com/missioner. 

The Secretary of the Interior. 



INTRODUCTION. 

[Report on Health Problems hy a Joint Conunittee of the National Council 
of Education and the American Medical Association.] 



In 1911 the National Council of Education appointed a committee 
on health problems in education. From the time of its appointment 
this committee has worked in cooperation with a special committee 
of the American Medical Association, and the fund available for the 
work of these health committees has consisted of small appropriations 
from the National Education Association and an equal amount 
appropriated each year by the American Medical Association. 

At the meeting of the department of superintendence of the 
National Education Association, held in St. Louis in February, 1912, 
a general report on health problems in the schools of the United States 
was presented and discussed. 

At the meeting of the National Education Association in Chicago, 
July, 1912, the topic ''Sanitation of Rural Schools" was selected for 
the two committees mentioned for their special study. 

During the spring of 1913 a field secretary, employed by the two 
committees acting as a joint committee, made a careful statistical 
and photographic survey of about 100 rural schools in four* Eastern 
States. This information has been placed at the disposal of Dr. 
F. B. Dresslar, to be used, in addition to the extensive body of material 
which he has gathered, in the preparation of a special bulletin on 
country schoolhouses. 

The following general propositions have been approved by the 
joint committee of the National CouncU of Education and of the 
American Medical Association: 

It is the conviction of the joint committee that there is no more 
important health problem in education than that which relates to the 
sanitation of the rural schools. 

The one-room country school is the oldest and most primitive type 
of school in this country. 

More than half the school children of the United States are educated 
in rural schools. 

The country-school child needs a healthful environment quite as 
much as the city child. 

1 



2 RURAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GROUNDS. 

In general, good architecture and good sanitation have been much 
more carefully studied and much more frequently secured in the 
school of the city than in the school of the country, but the sanitation 
of the rural school is in every respect as important as the sanitation 
of the city school. 

The problems are at bottom identical. Both the city child and the 
country child need fresh air and good light and clean, wholesome, and 
attractive surroundings; but the methods of securing these educational 
essentials are somewhat different in city and country. 

A schoolhouse without an adequate playground is an educational 
deformity and a gross injustice to childhood. 

Neglect of anything essential for health in construction, materials, 
arrangement, and equipment of the country-school building is an 
educational sin of omission, if not a social and civic crime. 

The expense of the things which really affect the health of the pupil 
in school should be estimated in terms of child life, child health, and 
human efficiency, and only for convenience be reduced to dollars 
and cents. 

The following features are considered most important for satis- 
factory sanitation of the rural school : 

I. Good air. 

(a) Supplied abundantly from outdoors in all weather. 

Q)) Not warmer than 68° F. in cold weather. 

(c) Heated (but not overheated) and kept in moderate motion by 
the operation of a jacketed stove or a properly arranged furnace 
heater. 

Outdoor air is the most valuable tonic known to man, and acts 
constantly not only through the lungs, but as a continuous air bath 
affecting the entire surface of the body. Ventilation is therefore 
the most important feature in the sanitation of the school. A vitiated 
atmosphere lowers the vitality, increases the susceptibility to and the 
severity of disease, and decreases the physical working power of the 
individual. Although it does not produce sudden death, it inevi- 
tably shortens life. 

II. Cleanliness. — Cleanliness not only exerts a powerful influence 
upon physical health, but also produces important effects almost 
directly upon minds and morals. 

III. Water, pure and abundant. 

(a) Water should be as free, as health-giving, and as available as 
the air. 

(jb) A sanitary drinking fountain should be furnished in every rural 
school. 



INTBODUCTION. 3 

IV. Disposal of sewage. — Provisions for toilet accommodations and 
sewago disposal in every rural school should satisfy all essential sani- 
tary requirements. ^ 

V. Lighting. 

(a) Light should be abundant and effectively controlled. 

(6) Windows should be located at left or at left and rear of the 
schoolroom; they should extend to the ceiling and provide a lighting 
area equal to one-fifth to one-fourth of the floor area. 

(c) Light should be controlled by double shades. 

(d) Du'ect sunlight should have access, if possible, to every school- 
room some time during the day. ■^ 

VI. Hygienic furniture, hoolcs, and materials. 

(a) Desks and seats, whether fixed or movable, should be indi- 
vidual, separate, adjustable, clean. 

(b) Books and other materials should not only be sanitary, but 
should be attractive enough to stimulate a wholesome response from 
the puj)ils. 

VII. Screening against insects. — ^Mosquitoes may convey germs 
of malaria and yellow fever. Flies may convey germs of typhoid, 
tuberculosis, infantile paralysis, and perhaps other diseases. Fleas 
may convey bubonic plague. Ticks may convey Rocky Mountain 
fever. Every schoolhouse and privy should be effectively screened 
against mosquitoes and flies. 

VIII. Location, site, surroundings, and grounds. 

(a) With reasonable regard for the geographic center of the com- 
munity, the rural school should be located on a site that is (1) well 
drained and away from stagnant water; (2) free from troublesome 
noise, unpleasant outlooks, or air contamination; (3) protected, so 
far as possible, from unfavorable weather conditions. 

(6) School grounds should provide sufficient space for play and 
games. 

IX. Cooperative worTc. — Sanitation of the rural school requires not 
only a healthful building and well-kept grounds, but intelligent and 
conscientious cooperation on the part of teacher and pupils for the 
preservation and improvement, where possible, of all the health values 
in the school and the school surroundings. 

X. Social and moral welfare. — The arrangements and equipment of 
the rural school should not only conserve in every vital way physical 
health, but should also favor in all fundamental particulars the social 
and moral welfare of all the pupils. The rural school is the most 
effective agency for influencing aU standards of country life. 

The following are some of the reasons for the present deplorable 
conditions in rural schoolhouses : 

(c) Low architectural and sanitary standards in rural regions gen- 
erally throughout the country. 



4 RURAL SOHOOLHOtJSBfl AND GROUNDS. 

(&) Ignorance regarding the physical and moral effects of unattrac- 
tive and insanitary school buildings upon the children and upon the 
conununity as a whole. 

(c) False economy expressed by local school boards in failure to 
vote enough money to build and maintain suitable school plants. 

(d) Lack of State supervision or assistance, which is usually 
necessary to maintain desirable standards. 

Some important influences that are effective for obtaining and pre- 
serving the sanitary and other valuable features of rural schools are 
suggested : 

(a) Assistance of the United States Bureau of Education and of the 
State departments of education in furnishing plans and instructions 
for construction and equipment of rural school buildings. The Bureau 
of Education in Washington is already supplying on request help of 
this kind, and a few State departments are demonstrating what may 
be done by supervision and support which aids without restricting. 

(6) Supervision of rural schools by State departments of education 
with power (1) to condemn insanitary and wholly unsuitable build- 
ings; (2) to give State aid to rural schools when the local authorities 
fulfill certain desirable and reasonable conditions. 

(c) Inculcation of high standards of school sanitation in the minds 
of both local school patrons and of school authorities who control 
school funds and who administer the affairs of the schools. Public 
lectures in the schoolhouses on health topics. 

(d) Introduction of effective school health courses in normal schools 
and teachers' institutes. Better education of rural school teachers, 
county superintendents, and rural school supervisors in the principles 
and practice of school hygiene and sanitation. 

(e) Arousing the enthusiasm of rural school pupils for the improve- 
ment and care of everything in the school and its surroundings that 
affects health and happiness. Development among pupils of organiza- 
tions such as "Pupils' boards of health," "Civic leagues," and 
"Health mihtias," for actual constructive effort. 

(/) Cooperation with the rural school of organizations like the 
granges, women's clubs, county medical societies, and other groups 
so situated that they may further the cause of health and efficiency in 
the school. 

iff) Popular education by attractive and reliable health information 
m the public press. 

(h) Introduction of social demonstration of sanitary school stand- 
ards and improvements by voluntary or paid demonstrators. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The two health committees acting as a joint committee express 
their appreciation of the valued counsel and cooperation of the United 
States Bureau of Education. 

This bulletin has been approved and adopted by the joint com- 
mittee as its general report on "The Sanitation of Rural Schools." 



Committee on Health Problems in 
Education of the National Coun- 
cil of Education. 

Thomas D. Wood, Chairman, 
ColuTiibia University, New York. 

William H. Bubnham, 

Clarlc University, Worcester, Mass. 

P. P. Claxton, 

U. S. Commissioner oj Education, 
Washington, D. C. 

F. B. Dresslab, 

Peabody College, Nashville, Tenn. 

Clark W. Hetherington, 

1115 East 54th Place, Chicago, III. 

David Starr Jordan, 

Leland Stanford, jr., University, 
Palo Alto, Cal. 

John F. Keating, 

Swpt. Public Schools, Pueblo, Colo. 

Charles H. Keyes, 

Skidmore School of Arts, Saratoga 
Springs, N. Y. 

Jacob Shaw an, 

Superintendent of Schools, Columr 
bus, Ohio. 

Albert E. Winship, 

New England Journal of Education, 
Boston, Mass. 



Committee on Health JProhlems of 
the American Medical Associa- 
tion. 

Council on Health and Public In- 
struction. 

H. B. Favill, Chairman, 
Chicago, III. 

Frederick R. Green, Secretary, 
Chicago, III. 

Special Committee on Health Prob- 
lems. 

R. W. CoRWiN, Chairman, 

Minnequ/i Hospital, Pueblo, Colo. 

John M. Dodson, 

Rush Medical College, Chicago, III. 



M. J. Rosenau, 

Harvard University, 
Mass. 



Cambridge, 



RURAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GROUNDS. 



By Fletcher B. Dresslar. 



Chapter I. 

SOME CONDITIONS AND OPPORTUNITIES IN RURAL 

LIFE. 



The main purpose of this bulletin is to offer suggestions with refer- 
ence to the construction of rural school buildings, especially from the 
sanitary and educational point of view. Before discussing the main 
topic, however, it is desirable to consider briefly the rural school as 
it should relate itself to the community, for the nature of this relation 
will have definite bearings on the size of the grounds, the construction 
of buildings, and their general utility. 

Rural life in the United States is in many respects different from 
that of any other country and especially that of continental Europe. 
There is probably more isolation in farm life in this country than in 
any other progressive country of the world, unless it be in parts of 
the Canadian northwest. The European farmer lives, as a rule, in 
a village and goes to and from his farm daily. The village church, 
the public garden, and the public halls give him opportunities for 
society and fellowship during his leisure hours. Cooperation, com- 
panionship, and social solidarity bring satisfaction and contentment. 
Such opportunities are not to be had in many of our rural communiti^ 
at any cost. 

The houses of most American farmers have not resulted from careful 
planning, either with reference to beauty or convenience, and least 
of all with due regard to the joys of Hfe. They were built to meet 
temporary needs. Habit has fastened upon our rural communities 
such types as were thus developed, and these types persist long after 
the financial ability to build better and more beautiful homes has 
been acquired. It is not more expensive houses that are needed, 
but more intelligently planned homes, those which will contribute 
greater joy, comfort, and healthfulness to the family. Many farmers 
have made the blunder of building expensive houses with little thought 
and less planning for the essentials of beauty, comfort, convienience, 



8 EUKAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GROUNDS. 

and pleasure. One farmer of this type, after saving and adding to 
his original farm until he owned 800 acres of very valuable land, 
recently built a big house. The house has no bath rooms, no central 
heating plant, no labor-saving methods of lighting, no water supply, 
no kitchen conveniences, no sleeping porches, no sanitary toilets, no 
laundry. Is it any wonder that his sons have gone to town to work 
in a shop or that his only daughter has preferred the life of a stenog- 
rapher? A Ubrary was not thought of; opportunities for games 
and recreation never entered into consideration; and yet the amount 
of money expended in the construction of this house would have 
purchased these things and a more beautiful and usable house as 
well. 

Many country people have failed to grow away fipm unhygienic 
practices about the home simply because there were no near neigh- 
bors to object to unwholesome conditions. Conditions wholly per- 
missible, and even good, in a sparse settlement may become highly 
undesirable with the presence of greater numbers. The fact that 
there are few neighbors to view his back yard has kept many a farmer 
oblivious to the educational and moral significance of cleanly sur- 
roundings. 

Here is a whole series of problems to which the country schools 
should address themselves. It will be a better sort of education for 
the children to use part of their time in considering how the farm 
home may be made more attractive, satisfying, and sanitary, than 
to use all their time on subjects which touch their life only incidentally. 

On the other hand, farm life in our country has many elements 
of strength in it, and upon these elements we must build. In general 
it is a healthful life. Fresh air, hard work, with rest days scattered 
all through the year, plenty of food, and direct contact with nature 
have produced strong bodies possessing great resistance. The evil 
habits of dissipation have not fastened themselves upon country 
people as a class ; and, despite many insanitary conditions, the death 
rate in the country districts is probably lower for aU contagious dis- 
eases save four (typhoid fever, hookworm disease, influenza, and 
whooping cough) than in the cities. Vigorous health is the most 
effective weapon with which to fight against disease. 

The claim has been made that the highest type of character can 
not develop in the country; that the stress and strain of city hfe are 
needed to purify, refine, and spirituahze. Be this as it may, it is 
certainly true that the foundation upon which the highest types of 
human character can be developed requires the training and develop- 
ment incident to life in the country. No foundation for learning and 
character is safely builded if it does not include in its elements that 
first-hand knowledgte of nature and things, that many-sided training 
in prabticad affairs, and that all-round pkysicia;! deVelbpmfenfc whicfe 



CONDITIONS AND OPPORTUNITIES IN RURAL LIFE. 9 

country life emphasizes in sucli a positive and natural way. Most of 
the men and women who have enriched our national life and whose 
memories we revere have had just such early training and develop- 
ment as our country life afforded. On this basis of insight and 
initiative they were able to enter into the life of a city and utilize its 
special opportunities, and yet abstain from its degrading influences. 

It would be false, however, to attempt to picture country life as 
free from all difficulties and discomforts, or to imagine that the only 
thing necessary to get the most out of hfe is to go to farming. The 
best of all things have never been brought together at any one spot 
nor included in any one caUing. Many things which the city has are 
vastly superior to any tiling of hke kind in the country; but it is just 
this need for bettering conditions that should stir all who are really 
seeking to reveal to our rural communities the possibilities of country 
hfe. Country life must be made more enticing, more beautiful, and 
more joyous. 

The field of service of the country school must include the general 
needs and longings of country people. The rural schools must set 
themselves to the task of creating a more satisfying educational 
fellowship in country communities. They must bring people to- 
gether for the sake of comradeship and for the sake of community 
mterests. They must teach the economic, social, hygienic, and rehg- 
ious importance of civic unity and civic righteousness. They must 
make it plain to all the people that this is an age of cooperation and 
that we can not Hve unto ourselves without limiting our own happiness 
and endangering the success of others. 

The public school is the only institution in which all are interested 
and through which all may cooperate. The schoolliouse door must 
swing open freely for aU who would work for the public good, and 
the schooUiouse must be so constructed as to invite to its shelter all 
who seek for a larger vision in anything and everything that may con- 
tribute to the community welfare. Above the door of every rural 
schoolhouse in this land some such legend as the following should be 
inscribed and tlirough the work of patrons and teacher its sentiment 
be woven into the fiber of the people : This huilding is dedicated to the 
service of this community and to the common cause of a hetter life for aU. 

40742°— Bull. 12—14 2 



Chapter II. 

RELATION OF THE COUNTRY-SCHOOL PROGRAM TO 
THE COUNTRY-SCHOOL EQUIPMENT. 



It is clear from even the brief analysis of country conditions in 
the preceding chapter that the rural school has before it a larger and 
more purposeful program than it is now undertaking. There are 
opportunities for a new and difficult service, and these must be 
seized and utilized effectively if the country school is to measure up 
to the needs and demands of a prosperous and satisfying country life. 
What, then, are the requisites for the realization of this preparation 
for worthy service ? 

THE TEACHER. 

1. Teachers for rural schools should be better and more specifically 
prepared for their work. A sad mistake is made both by the State 
and the community when the intellectual and moral guidance of the 
children is intrusted to those who themselves have gone little further 
along the paths of learning than the more advanced pupils whom they 
are called to instruct. A teacher whose knowledge of the facts and 
processes of learning is meager and sterile can not bring to any 
community, especially to a rural community, that lively inteiest and 
enthusiasm which will thoroughly commend her work. Before the 
rural school can reach its highest usefulness the standard of scholar- 
ship demanded by the State for teachers of such schools must be 
raised so that they will have at least a wider and more critical 
knowledge of the common branches of learning. But there are other 
important considerations in the preparation of a rural-school teacher. 
He or she must know more about country life and country work. A 
girl brought up in a city, educated in a city, and adjusted to city 
life, has no real understanding of the problems of a country school. 
The general custom of making rural schools in effect training schools 
for those who aspire to teaching as a profession is most unfortunate. 

The normal schools of the country are partly to blame for this 
condition. Very few of them attempt to address themselves to the 
specific task of thoroughly preparing teachers to meet in a large way 
the responsibilities of the work of teaching in a rural school. Of 
late many normal schools, instead of wisely deciding to limit their 
endeavors to the preparation of elementary teachers, are dividing 
10 



THE COUNTRY-SCHOOL EQUIPMENT. 11 

their energies, mixing up their curricula, and spreading their work 
over such varied fields that nothing intensive and specifically vital 
is done. In general, normal schools should not undertake to train 
teachers for both secondary and elementary schools. They should 
devote their time either to high-school work or to elementary-school 
work, exclusively. Some normal schools in every State ought to 
give their time and efforts strictly to the training of rural-school 
teachers, and their whole curriculum should be centered about the 
needs and opportunities in rural schools; others should devote their 
time to the training of teachers for city schools; and still others, if 
there exists no better agency for this purpose, should dedicate their 
energies to the work of training teachers for secondary schools. 

It has been said that one brought up in a city and thoroughly 
adjusted to city life has no real understanding of the problems of a 
country school. On the other hand, when such persons have specific 
training for country-school work and are possessed of ability to make 
the most of their environments, they are often more efficient than 
those born and reared in the country. The latter are habituated to 
the routine of country life, and they are often thereby prevented 
from seeing things from a different point of view. City experience 
and the educational and social refinements generally associated with 
it will be of very great service if, in addition, life in the country is 
thoroughly understood and its spirit appreciated. 

The purpose here, however, is not to outline in detail all that a 
country-school teacher should know about country life, but merely to 
call attention to those phases of her preparation that have a bearing 
on the sort of schoolhouse and grounds that must be fm-nished for her. 

The rural school teacher should have a liberal knowledge of the 
science and art of agriculture, for this is the paramount economic 
interest in the country. A thorough and practical knowledge of 
agriculture will help a teacher who has any power of imagination 
to see things not as they are, but as they should be. Whenever a 
coimtry-school teacher says, "This community is so backward and 
so set in its ways that I can do nothing" she shows that she is not 
liberally educated in the best sense of the term. The chief trouble 
with the teaching of agriculture in om* country schools is that the 
teachers know next to nothing about the real thing. They may 
have a smattering of book knowledge, but if they have no power to 
apply it to the conditions in their community their knowledge will 
count for naught. There are teachers who can talk volubly of the 
growing of corn, but who would be unable to select the best ear 
from a bushel, or to test, in any conclusive way, its germinating 
power. There are teachers who can expatiate on the value of 
leguminous plants but who could not, in the open, distinguish alfalfa 
from ragweed. 



18 RURAL SOHOOLHOUSES AND GROUNDS. 

On the assumption tliat it is possible to get teachers who do know, 
how can they successfully teach agriculture in a country school with 
no ground to prepare or to cultivate? The average country-school 
lot is not one-tenth large enough, and even school lots that are large 
enough are generally ill-adapted to agriculture. A few teachers have 
had sufficient imagination and initiative to rent or borrow a plat of 
land adjoining the schoolhouse and to do some real farming and 
teaching thereon. 

Three acres of arable land connected with a rural school could be 
made to pay a good profit, not only as a laboratory for teaching 
purposes but in actual money returns. The reader is possibly saying 
to himself: ''This is all theory, for crops must be made during vaca- 
tion, and then the teacher is gone and there is no one to look after 
them." But suppose the teacher has impressed the people with the 
fact that she knows, and is there for a real purpose besides drawing 
her salary? She will then spend part of the winter months deter- 
mining what is best to do with that plat of ground; what will give 
the best educational and financial returns to the conunimity; what 
preparation the soU will need; and what seeds are to be selected and 
tested. Suppose she thus plans during the winter the work and 
cultivation to be carried on during the vacation, makes out a definite 
program, and then appeals to the larger boys and girls and also to 
the men and women of her conununity to volunteer to carry out the 
work as directed? Here is a chance for a new kind of ''Corn club;" 
a chance to work for the common good and not simply for one's 
self; both kinds of club are needed. Here is a chance also for a 
community "Tomato club" to be undertaken for the benefit of the 
school and with resultant benefit to the individual. Each of these 
cooperative efforts could and would bring social contacts and social 
pleasures of the kind the country needs. 

There is a rural school "farm" in North Carolina where a plan 
very similar to the one here suggested has been of such influence on 
the neighborhood that young women who had never before thought 
of working in the field entered into this sort of community labor with 
great zest and with a sense of new-found joy. 

"What will you do with the money from school crops?" Devote 
it to the interest of the school. Buy baseballs, tennis rackets, and 
tennis balls; paint the schoolhouse; build sanitary toilets; build a 
neighborhood clubhouse; buy a piano or an organ for the school; 
buy books for the whole community to use; equip manual-training 
and domestic-science rooms; lengthen the school term; increase the 
teacher's salary. 

All this has been said mainly for the purpose of reenforcing the 
jLppeal for larger and better grounds for rural schools from the point 
of view of social service and of the actual needs of community teach- 



THE COUNTBY-SCHOOL EQUIPMENT. 13 

ing. There are other reasons why school grounds should be larger; 
these wiU appear in the chapter on the location of country school- 
houses. It is enough to indicate here that even if we had teachers 
specifically prepared to do what the country schools need, neither the 
grounds nor the buildings are adequate. A new and broader pur- 
pose for country schools demands a new sort of equipment in grounds 
and buildings, and it is hoped that this bulletin may suggest at 
least some ot the necessary changes. 

THE CUKRIOULUM. 

2. The fundamental tools or implements of education are com- 
prised in a knowledge of reading, writing, and mathematics, and a 
good control of the mother tongue. All the rest may be acquired by 
use of these and by orderly observation. One who can not count 
and calculate with precision is unable to deal effectively with the 
results of his observation. One who can not read, write, and spell 
is debarred from entering into the heritage of his own literature — 
moral, scientific, reUgious, aesthetic, or philosophic. 

Despite all the attacks on the country-school curriculum, the essen- 
tial tools for educational progress are generally comprised in it. 
Note that these fundamentals are called tools. A tool always implies 
material upon which it may be used. A knife would be meaningless 
if there were nothing to cut. Arithmetic would be equally useless 
if there were nothing to count and no numerical relations to calculate. 
It would be a poor policy for a joiner to instruct his apprentice 
simply in the manipulation of saw, chisel, or square rather than to 
teach him the use of these tools through the cutting, shaping, and 
fitting of timbers designed to serve a real purpose in life. Every 
country schoolhouse should have a workshop where boys and girls 
can put to test their arithmetic and reading and drawing and all the 
other educational tools which they are supposed to learn to use. 

Here is a problem that will teach more real arithmetic, or at least 
make this subject more actual and interesting, than all the puzzles 
found in the regulation textbooks: "What will it cost to build in this 
community the sort of a bam needed on a good farm of 100 acres, 
with 75 acres under cultivation?" 

This is a practical problem for a country boy. Before answering it 
he wiU first have to make drawings and plans for the barn. These 
drawings and plans will represent, if he goes at the problem intelli- 
gently, all his knowledge and ideals of that part of farm life which 
must center in or about a barn. He wiU have to determine how 
many horses it would be best to keep, and how they should be 
housed. He wiU need to consider the number of cattle such a farm 
wiU need, and how best to care for them. Problems will arise in con- 



14 EUEAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GROUNDS. 

nection with the amount of storage space needed for hay and grain 
and. with the proper location of rooms. He will need to figure on 
shed, room for wagons, and farm tools of aU sorts, and to consider 
how these can be cared for with the least trouble and the greatest 
economy. He will be forced to give thought to the building loca- 
tion, to the water supply, to the care of the compost, and to all the 
included hygienic relations of the home. All this will require calcu- 
lation of the most painstaking sort. But he has not yet begun to 
build. When his plans are matured he will need to figure out the 
amount of material needed and the cost in the local markets of this 
material. Here questions of local economics wiU come into promi- 
nence. The price of labor, skilled and unskilled, the expense of 
hauhng — all of these will enter into the calculation. He will find 
before he has finished that he has in these and in a score of other ways 
been brought face to face with the whole problem of the farm and 
home hfe that centers about the bam. 

A teacher who sets such a problem should know many things of 
practical importance to farm life not learned in the schoolbooks. 
She will be greatly aided in making such work interesting and helpful 
if she has gathered many suggestive plans and descriptions of farm 
bams and of the common conveniences which ordinary ingenuity 
may suggest and construct. 

The arithmetic and other subjects involved in the solution of this 
problem might be extended to the planning and construction of a 
house. Here the girls will be more interested. The planning of a 
convenient, beautiful, and sanitary home is about the last thing 
thought of in our rural-school curriculum. But the farmhouse is 
one of the most important factors in country Hfe. Here is the center 
of family Hfe, for good or evil. Here conveniences, sanitation, and 
comfort pay the highest dividends. The farmhouse need not be 
large and expensive. It may be beautiful, sanitary, and convenient, 
oftentimes at less cost than otherwise. A log house can be made 
beautiful, sanitary, and convenient if those who plan know that 
beauty and health are fundamental, and that it is not necessarily 
expensive to meet these demands. 

There should be a collection of suggestive plans for aU grades of 
country houses in the libraries of country schools. These can be 
gathered from magazines, post cards, photographs, and drawings 
made directly from successful houses. They can be made intensely 
interesting to the larger boys and girls, and through them much of 
the theoretical work of the curriculum can find appHcation. 

All this suggests certain needs in school buildings. If there are 
no good places for drawing, for making plans, or for working up such 
plans into models, it is almost impossible for the teacher to follow 
the line of work suggested above. Therefore, when the appeal is made 



THE COUNTRY-SCHOOL EQUIPMENT. 15 

for workrooms and libraries in this bulletin, the reader will under- 
stand that tliis is done in order to hasten the time wlien this larger 
pror^ram for country schools can be successfully imdertaken. "With 
a buiklin^^ planned to meet these suggestions, many other adjust- 
ments helpful to both teachers and children v/ill be ea::ily made. 

THE teacher's home AND FARM. 

3. The time is coming when the people will learn that it pays to 
hire competent men as teachers of country schools and to furnish 
them homes on the school grounds. Then a real experimental school 
farm will be easily managed and all the needs of the community can 
be centered in a school curriculum. It would be easier to arrange 
for consecutive and constructive work when conditions are such that 
a country teacher can see the possibilities of a useful and prosperous 
life ahead. To allow the schoolhouse and school grounds to lie idle 
all summer and to depend on young and inexperienced teachers for 
the educational leadership of the community is poor economy. The 
one paramount need in most rural schools is a teacher with ideals 
and with the desire to focus the attention and interest of every man, 
woman, and child in the district on the work done in and about the 
schoolhouse. 

Suppose there is a small school farm, a home for the teacher, and 
a building- arranged to accommodate the intellectual and social needs 
of the community, what could a virile man in charge, employed for 
the year instead of for a few months, do under such conditions? 
He could make the farm pay half of his salary and at the same time 
make it the most effective teaching agency connected with the school. 
He could develop a community interest and pride in the school now 
sadly lacking in most country districts. He could be the social guide 
for all the young people, those out of school as well as those in school. 
If he were musical, and most certainly he ought to be, he could 
develop some sort of a neighborhood orchestra and chorus which 
would furnish an incentive and a means of entertainment for all 
rehgious and social gatherings. 

The village schoolmaster of Germany has a house and garden on 
the school grounds. He settles there for a life's work and is, next to 
the priest or pastor, the most influential and useful man in the 
village. But he must have had a thorough training in all the things 
that will make for joy and happiness in that community. First, 
he must be a good musician. He must be able to play the violm 
and the pipe organ, and in addition he must be able to sing and 
conduct an orchestra and a chorus. This does not mean that he 
must be able to do these things in a mere passable fashion; he must 
be a skilled musician. During the many years of his special train- 



16 RUEAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GROUNDS. 

ing as a teacher his musical studies are carried, on in a most exacting 
way, and if he fails to develop good ability he will not receive an 
appointment as a village schoolmaster, even if all other requirements 
are met. What is the result ? He has an orchestra made up of old 
and young people in school and out of it. He is the leader of the 
church choir and of congregational singing. His help is demanded 
wherever music is desired. It would be almost impossible to over- 
estimate the influence his musical ability gives him with his people. 

In the United States we can not move our isolated farmhouses 
into villages, and it is doubtful if the work of our country schools 
can be made as effective in this way as that of the village schools of 
Germany. But as long as we neglect to give the country people the 
uplifting and harmonizing influence of music, so long will it be more 
diflS-Cult to unite a community into a social and civic body. Music 
is preeminently a social art, and is most satisfying when enjoyed in 
common. 

If we could have larger school grounds, a school farm, a home for 
the teacher, and an all-year-round social and educational center in 
the community, there would be fewer desertions from farm to city. 



Chapter III. 

HYGIENIC CONDITION OF TYPICAL RURAL SCHOOL- 
HOUSES AND GROUNDS. 



In investigating the hygienic conditions of typical country school- 
houses in 18 States, the following method was used: With the coop- 
eration of the State superintendents, two typical progressive counties 
in each State were selected. To the teachers of the rural schools 
in these counties the following personally addressed letter and list 
of questions were sent : 

[LETTER TO RURAL SCHOOL TEACHERS.] 

The United States Bureau of Education is very desirous of getting reliable infor- 
mation concerning the hygienic condition of typical country schools and asks your 
cooperation in the work. Two counties in your State have been designated by your 
State superintendent from which this material is to be gathered. 

Please fill the inclosed question form as carefully as you can and return it in the 
envelope inclosed, which requires no postage. Get one or two of your larger boys 
or girls to help you to do the measuring and calculation required. They will enjoy 
it, and it will do them more good than an ordinary lesson in arithmetic. Make your 
answers as clear as you 'can, yet short. If you have a photograph of your building, 
or can get one, it would help us very much if you would send us a copy. The bureau 
is planning to publish a bulletin on country schoolhouses and is hunting for all the 
good featiires available. If you desire it, a copy of the bulletin will be sent to you 
when ready. 

Please answer the questions fully, whether your conditions are good or bad. No 
individual answers will be published, and neither praise nor blame will appear 
charged to any persons or locality. We simply want the facts as they are, and we 
trust that you will help us immediately. 

Survey of the Hygienic Condition of Rural School, District No , County 

OF , State 

Survey Made by , Teacher. 

School grounds: Length, feet; width, feet. 

Size of playground, square feet; space for garden or agricultural work, 

square feet. 

Ground: Level? ; rough or hilly? ; well drained? ; trees? 

Building: Wood? ; brick? ; cement? ; stone? ; new? ; 

old? 

Size of schoolroom: Length, feet; width, feet. 

Light from one side? ; two sides? ; three sides? ; four sides? 

Toward what direction do the windows face? East? ; west? ; north? 

; south? 

From what sides do your pupils get light? Left? ; right? ; rear? ; 

front? 

What is the total area of all the windows? square feet. 

Floors: Single thickness? ; double? 

17 



18 RUEAL SCH00LH0T7SES AND GEOUNDS. 

Blackboard: Area, square feet; where placed? ; height from floor? 

feet; of "what material? 

Are the desks single? ; double? ; adjustable? ; sufficient in num- 
ber? 

Have you window shades? ; what color? ; do they run up from the bot- 
tom or down from the top? 

What is the color of the schoolroom walls? 

Have you cloakrooms? One? ; two? ; none? 

Briefly describe any special means you employ to secure ventilation 

Have you tested the eyesight of your pupils? ; if so, by what method? 

Have you tested their hearing? ; if so, by what method? 

What is your water supply? From well on school ground? ; from spring? 

; how far distant? 

Do you consider your water pure? ; are you furnished drinking fountain? 

; individual cups? ; or two cups for all? 

How do you heat your schoolroom? Common stove? ; jacketed stove? ; 

where located? ; do you bum wood or coal? 

Do you have special janitor service? 

Do ycu use dry sweeping? ; sprinkle floor with water? ; scatter damp 

sawdust on floor before sweeping? ; use any prepared dust-gathering mate- 
rial? ; are your floors oiled? ; do you use a feather duster, or dust cloth, 

to keep the furniture clean? 

Do you have a thermometer? ; what temperature do you strive to maintain in 

your schoolroom? 

At what hour do you begin school in the morning? ; at what time do you dis- 
miss for the day? ; how much time do you give for recess in the morning? 

in the aitemoon? 

Toilets: One? ; two? ; none? ; are they protected against 

flies? ; are they made with deep excavations? ; no excavations? 

; septic tank disposal? ; washout system? ; how far are they 

from the well, if you have one? 

Do you do any of your regular school work out of doors during pleasant weather? 

Do you have medical inspection of your school children? If so, how is it 

managed? 

Has any provision been made in your county or township for the care of the teeth of 
school children? If so, describe it 

Do you wish a copy of the bulletin on country schoolhouses when completed? 

These questions were sent to the teachers, instead of to the comity 
superintendents, for two reasons: First, the questions required more 
epecific and definite facts than a county superintendent could ordi- 
narily command; second, it was hoped that through these questions 
many suggestions would be lodged in the minds of the teachers and 
that thereby some good might be accomphshed in addition to getting 
the facts. 

In all, 3,300 letters and hsts were sent out, and about 50 per cent of 
all these were filled out and returned. The results here presented 
were tabulated from 1,296 returns, typically representative of the 18 
States. Naturally, some who rephed did not answer all the ques- 
tions; hence, the figures for the different topics vary slightly. 

GROUNDS. 

Out of 1,245 returns giving figures regarding the area of school 
grounds, 727, or more than 58 per cent, reported less than 1 acre, and 
nearly half of this number, or 321, had only | acre or less. Only 124 
of all these schools were furnished with grounds equal to 2 acres or 
more. Clearly the movement to adapt rural schools to rural life will 



HYGIENIC CONDITION. 19 

amount to very little unless our rural schools are furnished more 
ground for their needs. It seems foolish to expect any sort of worthy 
teaching of agriculture to emerge from our district schools imder the 
conditions shown. 

With regard to the character of the ground as represented by the 
returns, it seems that of 1,283 rural schools of this group, 1,030 have 
comparatively level land, and that 253 are situated on hilly, rough 
land. About the same proportion of school grounds, or 1,014, are 
reported as well drained, and 234 are wet and undrained. There are 
one or more trees on the lots of 930 schools, while 340 schools report 
no trees at all. The returns do not show whether the trees reported 
are mainly natural forest trees or whether they have been planted — 
probably the former. 

Measurements of the school grounds were taken in feet and have 
been reduced to acres in making the tabulation. The reason for 
asking for returns in feet was to forestall guessing as to the size of the 
school lots. It should be remembered also that the dimensions given 
include the ground upon which the building is situated, as well as that 
about the building. 

THE BUILDINGS. 

In order to get some composite notion cf what a rural schoolhouse 
is at this date, the request called for returns on the material of which 
the buildings are made. Wooden buildings number 1,134, or 91 per 
cent; 110, or less than 9 per cent, are of brick; 37 are built of stone, 
and 7 of cement. Of the total number, 464 are listed as new build- 
ings, and 805 are tabulated as old. More than 63 per cent of the 
buildings included in this survey are old, and a little less than 37 per 
cent are new. But the term ''new building" does not in any sense 
of the word mean buildings constructed according to modern demands 
of school hygiene. The hatchet-and-saw carpenter of the country 
is generally unable to read architects' drawings or to follow speci- 
fications. Rural schooUiouses are, for the most part, attempts to 
copy some existing school in the township or coimty. Therefore, 
"new buildings" are generally very little better adapted to their 
purpose from many points of view than old ones. Especially is this 
true in the older sections of the country. 

LIGHTING. 

When we attempt to look on the inside of rural school buildings, 
the following significant facts come to light: Only 25 classrooms out 
of 1,244 received light from but one side; 880 from two sides, 346 
from three sides, and 35 from four sides. In other words, about 2 
per cent of the buildings under consideration received the light from 



30 BUBAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GBOUNDg. 

one side. The prevailing custom, representing over 70 per cent, is 
to have hght from two sides. But this tells less than half the story 
of the hghting of the school rooms. Fourteen per cent have less than 
one-tenth as much glass area in the windows as floor surface within 
the room. A httle over 46 per cent have an area of glass surface 
between one-sixth and one-tenth as great as the floor surface. Com- 
bining these, we are able to see that more than 60 per cent of all the 
rural schools included in this survey have an insuflacient amount of 
glass surface to furnish proper Hghting, even if the windows were 
properly placed in all particiilars. 

Under a separate heading, facts were gathered relative to the 
proper use of window shades, and, although the returns are not suffi- 
cient to justify a final decision, it is plain that in the great majority 
of schools the shades are badly placed and can not be easily adjusted 
to suit conditions. To sum up then, investigation of the hghting 
problem shows that windows are often wrongly placed; that insuffi- 
cient glass surface is furnished; and that the best arrangement of 
window shades is not often foimd. It is probably not far from the 
truth to say that classrooms in rural schools receive only about one- 
half the hght they should, and that even this Ught is improperly 
distributed, 

FLOORS. 

With reference to the floors of school buildings, the returns show 
that a httle less than one-half (611) have single floors, and that the 
rest have some form of double floors. The importance of double 
floors for school buildings in any part of our country needs to be 
emphasized. Naturally, in cold chmates double floors are more 
necessary; yet even in the South, during periods of sharp weather, 
children are hkely to suffer from cold. It is almost impossible to 
equahze the heat in schoolrooms during cold weather if the floors are 
not practically air-tight. A warm room acts as a sort of exhaust to 
gather drafts of outside air from all directions, especially up through 
the floor, and therefore the temperature at the floor fine, unless the 
floors are double and properly deadened, will almost invariably be 
several degrees lower than at the breathing line. This is one of the 
reasons why children and teachers complain when the thermometer 
goes as low as 65° at the breathing Hne. If the floors are properly 
protected and the heat of the building is properly distributed, it 
would be comparatively easy to reduce the temperature in most of 
the schoobooms without objection, and to gain thereby from the 
point of health. Many of the rural schools reporting single floors are 
not only uncomfortable, but dangerous in cold weather, because of 
the drafts and the dust brought up in this way. 



HYGIENIC CONDITION. 21 

JANITOR SERVICE. 

As to the methods of caiing for the schoolhouse, especially the floor, 
out of 1,262 replies, only 213 teachers stated that there was any 
janitor service furnished. In other words, 1,049 teachers out of 
1 ,262 are required not only to teach school in such houses, but also 
to keep their school buildings clean. As a result, the following 
methods of cleansing are used: 548 sprinkle the schooboom floor 
with water before sweeping, 417 use dry sweeping, 227 use damp 
sawdust or other dust-absorbing materials, and only 199 have oiled 
floors. It seems unnecessary to discuss these facts at any length, 
but it appears that 965 schools, out of 1,391 that answered this ques- 
tion, must have dirty, dusty floors for a large part of the year, not to 
mention the dust on benches, desks, window sills, and all possible 
ledges throughout the room. It does seem almost inexcusable that 
a teacher should not at least be furnished sawdust by the use of which 
she may be able more easily to cleanse the floors and prevent the 
great clouds of dust that must necessarily arise from the sort of 
sweeping here indicated. 

WATER SUPPLY. 

The water supply for country schools is far from satisfactory. Of 
1,258 schools reporting under this general heading, only 567 are sup- 
plied with a weU or with running water on the school ground; 691 
schools, or nearly two-thirds of all reporting, have to depend on 
springs and wells outside of school grounds; and 266 schools depend 
on carrying water from wells or springs located more than one-quarter 
mile from the schoolhouse. Obviously, under such conditions as 
these, the children are deprived not only of fresh water, but also of 
clean water. Where no janitor is furnished, the children or the 
teacher have to carry the water. It would be much more sanitary and 
acceptable for each child so handicapped to bring a bottle of water 
from his home for his own needs, and in a few places it has been 
necessary to resort to this method. 

The receptacle for the water in the schoolroom is generally an 
open bucket, and approximately half of those reporting use a common 
drinking cup or dipper. Recently there has been a rapid growth in 
the use of individual drinking cups. This is due chiefly to the laws in 
many States making it mandatory to avoid common drinking vessels. 
In this connection, it needs to be said that individual drinking cups in 
rural schools are altogether inadvisable. They can not be kept in a 
sanitary condition, and despite all a teacher can do, they will be 
indiscriminately used. The only safe method is the bubbling foun- 
tain connected with a covered water can or jar, or, better still, with 
a pressure tank supply. These are found in only 5 of the schools 
reporting. 



22 BUBAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GEOUNDS. 

TOILET FACILITIES. 

The toilet facilities of the rural schools are, generally speaking, not 
only a disgrace but a menace to public health and decent morals. 
Not over 1 per cent of rural schools are furnished with completely 
sanitary toilets. This is a liberal estimate. From the descriptions 
given in the returns, it has been comparatively easy to decide between 
those which are passably sanitary and those insanitary. The figures 
are these: Out of 1,276 replies examined, 50 schools have no toilets 
at all; 52 have only one; and the rest, or 1,174, have two. Nearly 
half (601) have no pit at all for the refuse, and 631 have an open pit. 
Not 20 in the whole number are protected against flies or can be 
cleaned with any sort of success. The Rockefeller Sanitary Com- 
mission for the Eradication of Hookworm Disease has recently con- 
cluded that it will inevitably fail in eradicating this devitahzing 
disease unless rural communities institute some form of septic toilets, 
both for residences and for schools. Likewise, there is little hope of 
keeping down typhoid epidemics when toilets are insanitary or wholly 
lacking. The biggest rural problem is that of domestic and personal 
hygiene. The rural school ought to lead in the health movement; 
but the facts set forth help us to reahze how far we are from what 
ought to be. Every State and county board of health having to do 
with rural or village conditions should institute a persistent campaign 
for better hygienic toilets. Models should be available for every 
community. Boards of health are already rendering a great service 
in this direction. They are doing much to interest and instruct in 
matters of health, but they can not reach all the people, and teachers 
and county superintendents should feel it their special duty to carry 
this gospel everywhere. 

OTHER ITEMS. 

A little over haK the schools in the county have some form of 
slate blackboards, and the rest have painted wood, painted canvas, 
painted plaster, or some one of the various preparations of paper or 
pulp. Nearly one-third have their blackboards set 3 feet or more 
above the floor, too high for the primary classes to use properly. 
School work begins at 8 o'clock in 74 schools, at 7.30 in 117, and at 
9 o'clock in 1,102; only 167 dismiss before 4 o'clock. The report 
shows no cloakrooms of any sort in 537 'schools; 418 have one 
cloakroom, and 308 two. Where no cloakroom is available, clothing 
is hung inside the classroom, or piled up on benches in the corners. 

No thermometers are found in nearly two-thirds of the buildings 
reported, and even where they are supphed it is manifestly clear that 
many teachers either know next to nothing about keeping a school- 
room at the proper temperature, or else that the conditions of the 



HYGIENIC CONDITION. 23 

buildings are such that the rooms can not be kept at even temperature. 
For example, many a teacher reports: "I am supplied with a ther- 
mometer and I strive to keep the temperature at 75° to 90° in winter." 
This may not be so bad as it seems. If the thermometer registers 
80° a Uttle above the breathing hne, the temperature 1 foot above 
the floor may be as low as 65°. Until the buildings are more care- 
fully constructed, the matter cf heating rural schools will necessarily 
be unsatisfactory. Of 1,208 reports on method of heating, 704 
schools use the common stove and 604 locate it in the middle of the 
room. 

There are practically no workrooms in the schools reporting; 
not one-fourth of the desks are adjustable; and few of the buildings 
are properly decorated. 

In concluding the discussion of this brief survey into typical rural 
schools, it should be said that it is very important at this time for 
the various States to render helpful service to their rural-school 
officers, who are eager for better things; they need specific help. 
Much of the back-to-the-farm movement will be disappointing, 
unless the rural schools are remodeled and revivified. 

The reader who will take time to study carefully the summarized 
results presented in the accompanying table will be able to get a 
more complete idea of actual conditions than he can get from the 
condensed account given above. The names of the States from 
which these returns were gathered are here given in order to show 
that the figures represent as nearly as practicable typical conditions 
the country over. A study of the detailed reports brings out the 
fact that there is less difference between rural schoolhouses in the 
States mentioned than might be anticipated. 

Returns were studied from 2 coimties in each of the following 
18 States: 

Alabama. Missouri. Pennsylvania. 

Arkansas. Montana. South Dakota. 

Colorado. Nebraska. Tennessee. 

Indiana. North Carolina. Texas. 

Maryland. North Dakota. West Virginia. 

Minnesota. Oklahoma. Wisconsin. 

Size of school grounds: 

Less than one-half acre 321 

One-half acre to 1 acre 406 

One acre to 2 acres 394 

Two acres to 3 acres 74 

Three acres or more 50 

irea available for gardening: 

Less than one-tenth acre 156 

More than one- tenth acre 34 

No ground available for gardening or agriculture 1. 106 



24 RURAL SOHOOLHOUSES AND GROUNDS. 

Character of ground : 

Level 1, 030 

Rough or hilly 253 

Drained 1, 014 

Not well drained 234 

Trees 930 

No trees 340 

Material construction and age of the buildings: 

Wood 1, 134 

Brick 110 

Stone 37 

Cement 7 

New 464 

Old 805 

Number of classrooms: 

One - 1, 162 

Two 60 

More than two 33 

Method of lighting: 

From one side 25 

From two sides 880 

From three sides 346 

From four sides 35 

Amount of glass surface in classrooms: 

Less than one-tenth floor area 171 

Less than one-sixth to one-tenth floor area 559 

One-sixth floor area or more 482 

"Window shades and methods of using them: 

Having window shades 1, 145 

No shades 144 

Shades fastened at the bottom of windows 234 

Shades fastened at the top of window 897 

Character of floors of the classrooms: 

Single thickness 611 

Double thickness 644 

Kind of blackboards used and height set above floor: 

Painted lumber 177 

Some form of liquid slate 668 

Painted canvas 98 

Other improved material 188 

Less than 3 feet above the floor 692 

Character and number of desks used: 

Single 514 

D.ouble 774 

Nonadjustable 848 

Adjustable 281 

Sufficient in number 1, 127 

Insufficient in number 143 

Color of classroom walls : 

TJnpainted lumber 122 

Passable color 691 

Unsuitable color 457 



HYGIENIC CONDITION. 25 

Number of cloakrooms: 

None 537 

One 418 

Two or more , 308 

Ventilation of the classrooms: 

Windows 405 

Some help from jacketed stove 336 

Other devices 133 

Testing the vision of the children : 

Tested 294 

Not tested 968 

Testing the hearing of the children : 

Tested 238 

Not tested 1, 002 

Source of water supply : 

Well on school grounds 667 

Spring in the neighborhood 134 

Neighbor's well 557 

Less than one-fourth mile from building 727 

One-fourth mile or more from building 226 

Pure (teacher's judgment) 1, 032 

Not pure (teacher's judgment) 182 

Methods of serving water to the children: 

Bubbling fountain 5 

Individual cups 673 

Common drinking cups 580 

Methods of heating the classrooms: 

Common stove 764 

Jacketed stove 603 

Fireplace 1 

Stove placed in middle of room 604 

Stove not placed in middle of room 659 

Janitor furnished : 

Yes 213 

No 1,049 

Methods of sweeping: 

Dry 417 

Sprinkled floors 648 

Damp sawdust or other dust-gathering material 227 

Floor oiled 199 

Method of dusting: 

With feather duster 145 

Cloth (dusting e\'idently poorly done) 1, 080 

Regulation of temperature : 

Well regulated (teacher's judgment) 814 

No thermometer 755 

Time of day for opening school : 

8 o'clock 74 

8.30 o'clock "117 

9 o'clock 1, 102 

Time of day for closing school: 

4 o'clock 1,121 

Earlier 167 

40742°— Bull. 12—14 3 



26 RUEAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GROUNDS. 

Number and condition of toilets: 

None 50 

One 52 

Two 1,174 

Passably sanitary 601 

Insanitary 631 

Open-air studying: 

Yes : 406 

No 845 

Medical inspection: 

Yes 61 

No 1,196 

Oare of the teeth of the children : 

Yes 68 

No 1, 148 

The following report of the results of the sanitary inspection of 
3,572 fourth-class district schools, made in 1911 and 1912 by the 
Pennsylvania State Department of Education, shows that the condi- 
tion of rural schools in that State is about on a par with that brought 
out through similar investigations in other States. 

The tabulated statement giving the sununaries of the inv^tigation 
is here reproduced : 

Summary of sanitary inspection of 3,572 district schools in Pennsylvania in 1911 and 1912. 

Number of schools inspected 3, 572 

Number of schools insanitary 3, 036 

Number of schools sanitary 536 

School building: 

Rooms and halls unclean 229 

Sawdust and antiseptics not used 2, 662 

Dry dusting 2, 934 

Light surface not 20 per cent of floor space " 1, 083 

Light admitted in front of pupils 622 

Ventilation insufficient 1, 647 

Stove in room 2, 793 

Stove not jacketed 1, 029 

Steam or hot water 219 

Furnace in cellar 602 

Room not warm 223 

Floors not warm 279 

Hot air 2 

Water supply: 

No water supply 1 

Fountain 15 

Hydrant or spigot in room 188 

Spigot in building or on ground 246 

Drilled well 794 

Dug well 1, 021 

Spring 1, 095 

Surface drainage not excluded 437 

Nuisance within 100 feet 384 



HYGIENIC CONDITION. 27 

Water supply — Continued. 

Menace on higher level 287 

Cooler with spigot 688 

Bucket not covered 1, 233 

Not scalded daily 1, 500 

Fresh supply not secured each session 251 

Individual cups not used 2, 337 

Cups dipped in bucket 1, 781 

Creek water 1 

Cistern 24 

Ground pollution 148 

Privies: 

One single 169 

Approaches not screened 1, 748 

Dividing fences not tight 1, 138 

Bad repair 397 

Not clean 1, 190 

Objectionable odor 1, 320 

No vault 839 

Vault not water-tight 785 

Vault full 500 

Vault overflowing 208 

Lime or ashes not used 1, 066 

Surface drainage not excluded 962 

Urinals and flush closets: 

Not properly vented 21 

Not clean 13 

Objectionable odor 17 

Not sufficiently ventilated 17 

The accompanying tabular statement of the general hygienic con- 
dition of 109 rural schools was compiled fiom the details of a survey 
made under the direction of the joint committee of the American 
Medical Association and the National Council of Education. This 
committee sent a specially trained field agent with a camera into 
certain counties of the States of Connecticut, Vermont, New York, 
New Jersey, and Maryland to make a personal investigation of the 
conditions of the schools. The summary of facts given below was 
derived from a compilation of the returns. Many other facts were 
gathered, but it has not been thought necessary to present them in 
this connection. 

It should be said that the States selected and the counties chosen 
within each State were singled out, not from previous knowledge of 
conditions, but more or less fortuitously. The committee does not 
claim that they are typical counties and typical schools, but it 
believes that they are approximately so. The fact that they are 
typical could be substantiated only after a similar investigation had 
been made in practically all of the counties of each of the States 
named. However, indirect evidence through the results obtained by 
the investigations previously referred to bears out the supposition 
that they approximate typical conditions the country over. 



28 KUEAL SOHOOLHOUSES AND GROUNDS. 

Summary of results of the survey of 109 one-teacher rural schools in the States of New York, 
New Jersey, Connecticut, Vermont, and Maryland. Investigation made in 1913 by 
direction of the joint committee of the American Medical Association and the National 
Council of EduAXition. 

GROUNDS. 

Size of grounds: Schools. 

Less than one-half acre 74 

One-half acre to 1 acre 25 

One acre to 2 acres 10 

Location of buildings: 

On side of hill 32 

On level ground 43 

High ground 28 

Low ground - 6 

Character of soil: 

Loam 31 

Gravel 10 

Sand 52 

Hardpan 4 

Clay • 12 

Trees on grounds: 

Schools having trees 86 

Schools without trees 23 

Character of fence: 

Wire 26 

Board 17 

Stone wall 9 

Picket 3 

Rail and wire 5 

Rail - 3 

WATER SUPPLY. 

Source of water supply: 

Open springs 15 

Piped from open spring 7 

Dug wells 68 

Driven wells 10 

Walled reservoirs 4 

Field stream 2 

No water supply 3 

Sources of defilement: 

Too near privies 7 

Too near farm buildiags 22 

In open cow pasture 4 

Sources that are exposed to other kinds of defilement — 36 

Receptacles for holding drinking water: 

Common open pail 53 

Covered tanks with faucet 40 

Covered tanks with bubbling cups 1 

No receptacle provided 15 

How often receptacles are cleaned: 

Four times a month 37 

Daily 10 

When teacher thinks necessary 8 



HYGIENIC CONDITION. 29 

Lavatory facilitiea: Schools. 

Washbasina 91 

No waahbasina 18 

Provided with soap 61 

Not provided with Boap .- 48 

Provided with towels 56 

Not provided with towels 53 

Towels washed twice a week 3 

Towels washed once a week 31 

Towels washed at infrequent intervals 13 

Methods of serving water: 

Schools using paper cups 5 

Schools with only one cup 20 

Schools with one cup per child 51 

Schools with more than one cup, but fewer cups than children 29 

Schools without cups 4 

PRIVIES. 

Both boys and girls use same 50 

Partitioned 45 

Separate buildings provided for sexes 59 

Screened 51 

Distance from school building: 

Less than 10 feet 25 

Between 10 and 25 feet 32 

Between 25 and 50 feet 36 

Over 50 feet 16 

Provided with locks 14 

Obscene drawings 50 

Kinds of toilets and their condition: 

Provided with removable receptacle 9 

Cesspool protected from flies 8 

Cesspool xmprotected from flies 101 

Neither receptacle nor excavation 92 

How often refuse removed: 

Once a year 101 

Less frequently 8 

Ventilated: 

No provision made 75 

Some provision made 34 

Odor offensive 106 

Not offensive 3 

Seats clean CO 

Not clean 49 

Disinfected 1 

Not disinfected 108 

Number of roofs that leak 22 

WALLS AND CEILINGS. 

Material of walls: 

Matching 53 

Plastered and papered 14 

Plastered 40 

Wood 2 



30 EUEAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GROUNDS. 

Color of walls: Schools. 

Wood 23 

Gray 30 

Green 10 

Tan 8 

White 25 

Terra cotta 2 

Yellow 5 

Brown 6 

Color of wainscoting: 

Gray 37 

Green 6 

Wood 8 

Brown - 14 

White 10 

Material of ceiling: 

Matching 65 

Plastered and papered 7 

Plastered 33 

Metal 4 

Color of ceiling: 

White 36 

Gray 24 

Green 5 

Tan 4 

Terra cotta 3 

Brown 3 

Yellow 5 

Wood 29 

BLACKBOARDS. 

Material of blackboards: 

Wood 49 

Slate 42 

Composition 4 

Cement 6 

Plaster "8 

Location of blackboards: 

Front only 42 

Front and rear 9 

Front and one side 13 

Fiont and two sides 15 

Front, rear, and one side 2 

Front, rear, and two sides 12 

One side only 1 

Two sides - 7 

Rear 2 

Rear and two sides 3 

Between windows 57 

Height of blackboards set above floor: 

4 feet 1 

3ifeet 2 

3 feet.. 61 

Less than 3 feet 22 



HYGIENIC CONDITION. 31 

Width of blackboarda: Schools. 

5feet 5 

4 feet 11 

3i feet 3 

3 feet • 70 

2 feet 9 

Schools not given 11 

Square feet of blackboards: 

30 square feet or less 23 

30 to 50 26 

50 to 100 40 

100 to 150 18 

Over 150 2 

SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 

Character of building: 

Wood 100 

Stone 4 

Brick 5 

Old 103 

New 6 

Good condition 80 

Needing repairs 29 

Basements: 

School buildings with basements 11 

Sanitary basements 7 

Insanitary basements 4 

Floors: 

Single floors 39 

Double floors 70 

Deadened 1 

Good condition 63 

Bad condition 46 

Oiled 38 

Roof: 

Leaks about belfry 7 

Leaks elsewhere 22 

Schoolrooms : 
Length — 

20 feet or less 4 

20 to 22 feet 20 

22 to 24 feet 6 

24 to 26 feet 13 

26 to 28 feet 10 

28 to 30 feet 7 

30 to 32 feet 11 

32 to 34 feet 14 

34 to 36 feet 8 

36 to 38 feet 11 

38 to 40 feet 4 

Width— 

12 to 16 feet 6 

16 to 18 feet 6 

18 to 20 feet 28 



32 BUBAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GKOUNDS. 

Sclioolrooins — Continued. 

Width — Continued. Schools. 

20 to 22 feet 31 

22 to 24 feet 11 

24 to 26 feet 12 

26 to 28 feet 8 

28 to 30 feet 2 

30 to 32 feet 5 

Height of ceiling above floor — 

7 to 8 feet 28 

8 to 9 feet 39 

9 to 10 feet 17 

10 to 11 feet 14 

11 to 12 feet 2 

12 to 13 feet 4 

15 to 16 feet 2 

16 to 17 feet 3 

Windows: 

Schools with — 

3 windows 1 

4 windows 6 

5 windows 9 

6 windows 58 

7 windows 9 

8 windows - 14 

9 windows 8 

10 windows - - - 3 

12 windows 1 

Windows in classroom face — -•■ '"'■'■'■ 

North and south 15 

North, south, and east 9 

North, south, east, and west 11 

North, east, and west 17 

North, south, and west 13 

North and east i 1 

North and west 2 

East and west 1 

East and south 1 

South and west 1 

South, east, and west 22 

Total area of glass surface in windows compared to floor surface — 
Glass surface equal to — 

Less than one-tenth floor surface : 10 

More than one-tenth but less than one-eighth , 27 

More than one-eighth but less than one-sixth 20 

More than one-sixth but less than one-fourth - . . 36 

One-fourth or more 13 

Not given 3 

Double sash on weights 38 

Can be opened for ventilation — 

Upper and lower sash 52 

Lower sash 1^5 

Can not be opened 2 



HYGIENIC CONDITION. 33 

Windows — Continued. 

When cleaned — Schools. 

Once a year 98 

Oftener 6 

Never cleaned 5 

Windows with shades 100 

Windows without shades 9 

Shades in good condition 63 

Shades in bad condition 37 

Cloakrooms: 

Schools having one cloakroom 64 

Schools having two cloakrooms 25 

Schools having no cloakrooms 20 

Janitor service: 

Special janitor service 38 

Teacher serves as janitor 71 

Desks: 

Double desks 73 

Single desks 36 

Sufficient in number 105 

Nonadjustable 109 

In good condition 94 

In bad condition 15 

Desks face windows 16 

Heating: 

Jacketed stove 15 

Unjacketed stove 88 

Furnace 6 

Stove in middle of r jom 72 

Stove in corner of room 18 

Sufficient heat in cold weather 94 

Insufficient heat 9 

Stove troublesome 26 

Ventilation: 

At recess only 62 

Oftener 41 

By the use of windows 48 

By the use of doors 5 

Both doors and windows 56 

Upper sash of windows 14 

Lower sash of windows 34 

Both lower and upper sash 50 

Sweeping and dusting: 

Once a week or less 20 

Once a week and oftener 39 

Daily 50 

Dry sweeping 70 

Sprinkle or use compound 39 

Use feather duster 13 

Use dust cloth 86 

Use brushbroom 3 

Medical inspection: 

Vision and hearing tested by teacher 52 

By regular medical inspector 38 



Chapter IV. 

THE LOCATION OF COUNTRY SCHOOLHOUSES. 



More friction has arisen between county superintendents and 
school patrons and among the patrons themselves with regard to the 
location of rural school buildings than over any other question 
directly or indirectly having to do with country schools. When 
school district boundary lines have been estabUshed, the people natu- 
rally conclude that the building should be located in the exact center 
of the district, or as near the center as roads will permit. Rarely 
has the thought of the location from the needs of health, playgrounds, 
or a school farm been the chief consideration. 

There is reasonableness in the demand for a central location, but 
only when more important demands are not in conflict with it. It 
is far more important, for example, to have well-drained school 
grounds, where the opportunity for securing a sanitary water supply 
and toilet system is good, than it is to give the preference to a loca- 
tion nearer the center of a district where these sanitary necessaries 
are not readily suppUed. The slight inconvenience to a few children 
resulting from locating the building to one or the other side of the 
geographical center should not be considered seriously when the 
more important considerations of health, sanitation, playgrounds, 
and the larger community interests are at stake. Of course, in very 
cold climates children will have to be protected in bad weather, but 
parents are generally ready and willing to do this of their own accord. 
In good weather a walk to school of a mile and a half furnishes excel- 
lent exercise, teaches the children to be self-helpful and courageous, 
gives them strength to resist the effects of ordinary exposure to wind 
and rain, and is usually of greater value in general physical training 
than all the unnatural calisthenic exercises the teacher can devise. 

In selecting a site for a rural schoolhouse, the following factors 
should be considered: 

1. No site should be selected that will not offer a good outlet for 
tile drains set well below the walls of the building to keep the base- 
ment and garden in good condition. A wet, swampy piece of land is 
not only a muddy, dirty place, but it introduces dangers from ground 
air and moisture that will always prove troublesome and unwhole- 
some. The air, on account of its great weight, presses into the 
ground to a much greater depth than is ordinarily supposed. When 
34 



THE LOCATION OF COUNTRY SCHOOLHOUSES. 35 

the air above the ground becomes colder than that in the ground, 
and this is true at night during warm weather and even during the 
day in cold weather, the heavy air above the ground will displace 
that in the ground, and will drive it out at the point of least resist- 
ance. Since the ground underneath and about a schoolhouse is drier 
than that not covered, the ground air is driven from all directions 
toward the schoolhouse, and by reason of the fact that the heat 
escaping from the building will cause an upward draft, this ground 
air is easily drawn into the rooms. Ground air contains a far greater 
percentage of carbon dioxide and other noxious gases than is ordi- 
narily found in air above the ground. These gases are produced 
through the agency of the bacteria acting upon decaying animal and 
vegetable matter in the soil. Moreover, ground air is generally 
saturated with moisture, and as it rises in the schoolroom, especially 
at night when the building is cold, this moisture will be deposited 
on the walls, blackboards, and floors, so that all wooden parts of the 
building are rendered liable to decay and the air in the building will 
be stuffy and collarlike. Unless school buildings are so built as to 
prevent the entrance of this ground air and the moisture brought up 
with it, no amount of effort on the part of the teacher will be able 
to keep the air always wholesome and hygienic. It is of great impor- 
tance, therefore, to prevent these diflBiculties by selecting a site which 
can be kept wholesome by proper drainage. 

To go to the other extreme and select a high hill or a wind-swept 
place for the location of the school building is also an error. What 
is needed is a location comparatively level, but so situated that it 
can be easily kept dry. 

2. Other things equal, it is generally better to select a site with a 
frontage to the north or the south, so that the building may be 
planned with the short side facing toward the roadway and the long 
sides toward the east and the west. Such a site makes it easier on 
the whole to plan the building with reference to its general appear- 
ance and also with reference to its cost. In order to make this point 
clearer, let the reader undertake to draw a floor plan for a lot with 
an approach to the building from the east or the west. Either he 
will have to depend for his classroom on north or south light, which 
is to be avoided, or to face the building with the long side toward 
the roadway. This will introduce some architectural difficulties, for 
it is often much easier to get a satisfying elevation for a one-room 
school building with the entrance in the end rather than in the side 
of the building; and it is also more economical of space. Many 
school buildings have been doomed to bad illumination from the fact 
that builders have followed the custom of facing the end of the build- 
ing toward the roadway, regardless of the direction from which the 
classroom must get its light. 



36 BUBAL 9CH00LH0USES AND GBOUNDS. 

However, it is not impossible to adjust a satisfactory buUdiiig to a 
lot facing a roadway on the east or west. Several of the plans pre- 
sented in this bulletin have been drawn to meet just this situation, 
for sometimes school authorities are limited to the selection of a site 
east or west of a roadway. But where there is a choice and all other 
considerations are even, it is better to utilize a lot with a frontage on 
the north or the south. 

3. Another set of conditions must be taken into account, and these 
have to do indirectly with the Hghting. Suppose a lot is selected 
with a north or a south frontage, and that to the east or the west of 
it there are high hills or mountains sufficiently near to raise the horizon 
line appreciably. Such a location would at once handicap the build- 
ing by making it next to impossible to secure the proper amount of 
Hght from one side or the other. If high forests or mountains are 
near on the east, then the west light should be preferred for the class 
room. If this hindrance to light is on the west of the lot selected, 
then the east exposure would be the only one to use. Many rural 
school buUdings located in vaUeys are much more seriously handi- 
capped from the point of view of illumination than the average school- 
man is conscious of. 

4. Elsewhere emphasis has been laid on the fact that our school 
grounds are not large enough, especially from the point of view of 
agricultural work. The country schools will never be able to do their 
work properly unless the amount of ground assigned to them is 
increased. Playgrounds, agricultural work, fruit growing, and for- 
estry — all legitimate demands upon the rural school — require more 
land than is usually given to rural schools. But it would be possible 
to select a plat of ground sufficiently large and yet ill-adapted for play- 
grounds or for agricultural work. Hence the site selected should be 
on good son, adapted for the cultivation of any or aU kinds of plants 
or grain ordinarily grown in the neighborhood. To select a poor, 
sterile, rocky soil, though well situated with reference to other 
requirements, would be a mistake, for no teacher could, on such 
ground, make such a showing in agricultural experiments as would 
attract the favorable attention of the farmers in the community. 
HUly, rough, or rocky land is not satisfactory either for playgrounds 
or for any other purpose to which the country school plat should be 
devoted. 

In one case in New York State observed by the field agent of the 
joint committee in the summer of 1913 the schoolhouse was on a hill- 
side and the accumulated wash down the hill had risen above the 
foundation to such an extent that the drainage actually "seeped 
through to the floor." 

5. An abundant and sanitary water supply is a matter for thought- 
ful consideration in the selection of the site for a rural schoolhouse. 



THE LOCATION OF COUNTRY SCHOOLHOUSES. 37 

A country school building is frequently located because of the prox- 
imity of a spring or a neighbor's well. The average spring in the 
country has proved to be a greater menace to health than people have 
ever dreamed of, because with increasing population and deforestation 
there is more opportunity both for contamination of springs and 
greater irregularity of water supply than was formerly the case. 
Spring water may appear very clear and yet be unwholesome to 
drink, and it is therefore risky to depend on springs for drinking 
water. If a site is selected with the idea of depending on a well for 
drinking water, it is important to take note of any possible chances 
for seepage into the well. If a high, rocky place is selected, it would 
be very difficult and expensive to sink a well to such a depth as to 
insure a sufficient amount of pure water. Generally speaking, a 
gravelly or sandy loam into which a well can be driven to a sufficient 
depth to prevent any surface contamination is preferable. 

6. Finally, no site should be selected for a school building too close 
to electric lines and steam railways. Such a location offers oppor- 
tunity for the introduction of a great deal of smoke and dust into the 
schoolroom. Further, there is always some danger due to fires or 
electricity when a building is situated near such lines. There is also 
great temptation for children to walk or play on car lines, and this nat- 
urally introduces useless danger. The chief difficulty, however, is 
the noise. Some States have laws forbidding the erection of school 
buildings within 500 feet of railway lines, and this sort of legislation 
is bound to increase. 



Chapter V. 

ORIENTATION OF THE BUILDING. 



No school building can be well lighted if it is not first properly- 
placed with reference to the cardinal points of the compass. If a 
building is so placed on a lot as to make it necessary to locate the 
windows in the classrooms to face toward the north or the south, 
neither the required amount of glass surface nor the correct setting 
of the windows will overcome the difficulties thus introduced. In 
order to make this last statement clear and significant, these diffi- 
culties must be stated and explained. 

The fundamental demands of health require the purification of a 
classroom by direct sunhght; but it is also necessary to introduce 
this all-important purifying agent in such a manner as to prevent as 
far as possible the direct rays of the sun from falling on the desks 
and books of the pupils while they are engaged in study. If the 
windows of a classroom are placed on the north side of a building 
located in any section of our country, very little direct sunshine will 
ever enter, and during the school season practically none, for the 
sun's path is then too far to the south. It may be possible in the 
southern and southwestern sections to get sufficient well-dispersed 
light in a classroom with windows facing toward the north, but the 
light thus entering has lost its power as a germicidal agency. Direct 
sunlight is the most powerful and reliable disinfectant known, and it 
is running contrary to one of the best-estabhshed principles of 
hygiene to construct either a school building or a dwelling house in 
such a manner as to fail to get this value of direct sunlight. 

True, in large buildings devoted to high-school or technical educa- 
tion some special rooms are needed for art work, and for these the 
north light has an advantage because of its quality. North light is 
soft and produces more artistic shadow effects than light from any 
other direction. But these rooms are not as wholesome as those 
receiving direct sunlight, and are allowable only for short periods 
during the day. For ordinary classrooms, where children remain at 
work during the whole day, dependence on north light is a serious 
error. 

Elsewhere detailed reasons are given why classrooms should re- 
ceive light from but one side; it is sufficient here to state the fact 
that unilateral lighting is universally recommended in aU locations 
38 



OBIENTATION OF THE BUILDING. 39 

where light is not impeded by tall buildings, a dirty, smoky atmos- 
phere, or any other serious hindrances. In cold climates it is not 
best to depend on windows facing toward the north, because it is 
more difficult, and consequently more expensive, to heat these 
rooms. They are not only exposed to the direct winds from the 
north, but they fail to get whatever available heat the direct rays of 
the sun carry. By reason of these two handicaps a schoolroom so 
situated may require in cold weather 10 to 20 per cent more fuel 
than one getting east or west light. Of course the effect of the wind 
will depend to a great extent on the construction and location of the 
building. A building vnth walls made of porous brick or wood will 
show greater leakage than one whose walls are of cement or of hard 
brick. But while these difficulties suggest greater expense, they are 
not of so much importance from the health point of view as the 
dangei-s due to lack of sunshine. For the sake of health every 
schoolroom — and, for that matter, every living room — should receive 
a "sun bath" every day the sun shines. 

Doubtless some who realize the great hygienic importance of sun- 
light have concluded that classrooms facing toward the south are the 
most acceptable. This conclusion would be warranted were it not 
for the fact already mentioned. With direct sunlight streaming into 
a schoolroom during the entire school day, it is well nigh impossible 
to furnish proper light to all the pupils in the room. This difficulty 
is not serious in a dwelling, where chairs are not fastened to the 
floor and where people can adjust themselves so as to get proper 
light either for reading or for work, but in a schoolroom, where from 
25 to 45 cliildren must spend a good part of each day, it is impossible, 
whether the desks are fastened to the floor or not, for all of the chil- 
dren to adjust themselves to avoid the shifting rays of direct sun- 
light entering the room. If, as is usually the case and probably will 
be for a considerable time to come, the desks are fastened to the 
floor, the pupils can do httle to adjust their positions so as to avoid 
the painful and harmful effect of direct sunlight on desk or book. 

If shades are used, they will inevitably reduce the light in parts of 
the room below the normal demand, and hence some of the children 
wiU suffer for lack of light. Many kinds and qualities of window 
shades have been devised to meet these conditions, but none of them 
has fuUy overcome the difficulty suggested. Space is lacking to 
discuss window shades at length. Suffice It to say here no shade has 
been developed that will properly condition the direct rays of the 
sun to a schoolroom so as to guard the children from eyestrain due 
to reflection of direct sunhght and at the same time permit the 
passage of sufficient light to give satisfactory illumination for all 
parts of the room. 



40 RURAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GROUNDS. 

The conclusion, therefore, is this : Be sure that no lot for a building 
is selected which will require such an orientation of the building that 
it will be necessary to depend on south light for the classrooms; 
buildings for school purposes, especially for elementary classes, should 
be so planned and so located on a school lot that the classrooms may 
receive either east or west light. 

In the construction of a small building there are some advantages 
of the east light over the west. First, an eastern exposure will permit 
the morning sun to take the chill out of the room before school begins. 
Second, it is probably true that there are in most parts of the country 
fewer cloudy mornings than afternoons, and hence those rooms hav- 
ing windows toward the east will get a better sunning than those 
with windows toward the west. In those sections where foggy 
mornings are prevalent, the opposite would be true. In buildings 
with east exposure the troublesome direct rays of the sun wiU have 
nearly disappeared by 10 o'clock in the morning. The shades can 
then be rolled up for the rest of the day. In the third place, the 
prevailing cold winds in the winter are more from the west and 
northwest than from the east, except along the eastern coast. 

However, the correct choice between east and west windows will 
depend to a large degree on the surroundings. For example, if a 
school building must be placed near hills, mountains, or tall forest 
trees, it would be better to choose the west side for the windows, if 
the horizon line is high toward the east. If the opposite be true, the 
east side is preferable. A range of high hills or mountains often raises 
the horizon line so high that the sun may not appear above it until 
quite late in the day. Besides, even after the sun has reached the 
zenith, a mountain's side will not reflect back enough light to insure 
good illumination. A wide expanse of sky is necessary. It will be 
important then to study the surroundings, to note the possible hin- 
drances and the general outlook in order to decide wisely whether 
the building should be placed to introduce east light or west light into 
the classrooms. 

Plate 17 represents a schooUiouse in the mountains of Colorado. 
The location of this building makes it very essential that the light 
entering the classroom should come from the side opposite the 
mountain near which the school is built. 

Even when the difficulties with reference to lighting are for all prac- 
tical purposes equal, other considerations may affect a decision. An 
attractive outlook from a classroom is better than an ugly one, and it 
sometimes happens that this consideration decides the orientation 
when other things are equal. For example, if a lot must be selected 
near a busy, dusty roadway, much relief from the dust, noise, and 
disturbance may be secured by facing the windows in the opposite 
direction. On the other hand, the appearance of a building may 



ORIENTATION OF THE BUILDING. 41 

demand the placing of tlio windows on the side from which the 
approach is made. All matters of tliis sort must be determined by 
local conditions. But it will always remain true that in the latitude 
of tliis country it is better and safer to depend on cast or west light 
for schoolrooms than on north or south light. 

There is still anotlier point worth mentioning and this favors west 
windows. Children seated in rooms lighted from the west will natu- 
rally face north, and are then in a position to read their maps without 
confusion. The cardinal points on the map will then agree with the 
realities about them. The top of the map will be toward the real 
north, the left side will correspond with the real west, and altogether 
the representation and the reality will be more easily connected. 

Thus far this discussion relative to orientation has been concerned 
with the proper lighting and sanitation of the classroom. The ques- 
tion of lighting workrooms, libraries, cloaki'ooms, and toilets, demands 
separate treatment, for in these rooms direct sunlight is not a disturb- 
ing element, and in the main the purifying influence of sunlight is 
more important. Unilateral lighting is not an essential condition in 
these rooms. 

Workrooms in general are decidedly better for receiving abundant 
sunshine, for here benches and tables should be arranged to suit the 
convenience of the students, and more individual liberty is necessary. 
The same is true of library rooms. Toilets and cloala*ooms require 
direct sunshine and abundance of light in order to keep them sanitary 
and wholesome. Proper orientation when applied to these rooms 
means provision for abundant light and as much direct sunshine as 
good sanitation demands. 
40742°— Bull. 12—14 4 



Chapter VI. 

TH.E COUNTRY SCHOOLHOUSE. 



GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 

The country schoolhouse should be beautiful. This does not mean 
that it needs to be expensive. Frequently those who have much 
money to spend on a school building do it so thoughtlessly as to de- 
stroy all possibility of beauty. Towers and turrets have no place on 
a country schoolhouse. A log schoolhouse can be made beautiful. 
There is power in beauty closely allied to righteousness. The dis- 
satisfaction with country life which has caused so many young people 
to go to the cities is partly due to the bleakness and ugliness of the 
farm home, the farm barn, the rural schools, and churches. If a 
beautiful rural schoolhouse could be constructed in every neighbor- 
hood, it would not be long before the people would see and feel its 
power. 

How shall we get beautiful schoolhouses ? There is only one way. 
Those who have developed that sense of fitness which we call appre- 
ciation of beauty must have power and means furnished them to 
create it in our public buildings. Cities where a few artist-architects 
are at work can do much, for they can afford to hire such architects 
to plan their buildings and to supervise their construction. In the 
country where a meager allowance is made for the construction of a 
schoolhouse, those in authority do not feel justified in hirmg a worthy 
architect to make their plans. Even if they did, it is not likely that 
they would get the building the artist had planned; for the ordinary 
carpenter who builds most of our rural schoolhouses is not able to 
read drawings and to follow exactly the specifications the architect 
would draw up. Practically all of the rural schoolhouses constructed 
in the last quarter of a century have been copied after others in 
adjoining neighborhoods, and hence little progress has been made. 
Year after year new houses have been built perpetuating the evils 
of unhygienic construction and the horrors of architectural ugliness 
in almost every detail. By the use of the plans detailed and illus- 
trated in another chapter, it is hoped that a little may be done to 
further the construction of more beautiful rural schoolhouses, and at 
the same time to save money and get more satisfactory buildings. 
(See chap. 7.) 
42 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOLHOUBE. 43 

This omphasis on tho Ijoiiuty of school architecture is not for the 
purpose of declaring it to be the prime essential. Yet none of us 
should forget that beauty is in its own nature useful. Unfortunately 
those who have built our country schoolhouses have for the most 
part given little or no tliought to real beauty. Some have attempted 
to adorn, but these adornments frequently only accentuate the lack 
of unity and harmony. Hundreds of rural school buildings show 
that if tho roof and the sides, the height and the width, had been 
befittingly proportioned the one to the other, much money would 
have been saved, and far more beautiful buildings would have been 
obtained. Ugliness in rural school buildings has, therefore, not only 
cost money, but hjis corrupted the yc^uth by rudely staring them 
in the face daily. Simple beauty is ndt expensive; it is by its very 
nature economical of material. Look at the illustration of the little 
log schoolhouse (plate 18A) located in a far Western State. Cover 
up the monstrous lean-to, and you will see how beautiful a simple 
building can be. Contrast this little, inexpensive building with the 
new and elaborate building shown in plate 18B. See how many things 
have been stuck together in the latter, and how much might have 
been saved if some one in authority had seen the real through the 
ideal. 

Beauty is more than economical; it is educational in the highest 
sense. Beauty is not for the rich; neither is it for the poor. It is 
for all. A beautiful country school building, appropriately located, 
will exert a quiet but persistent educational influence on all who are 
associated with it, in school or out. Its unconscious reflex influence 
will enter into the life of the neighborhood and of necessity express 
itself in many ways. All who see a beautiful and appropriate school 
building are inclined to be more loyal to the cause it represents and 
less satisfied with ugliness anywhere. The district schoolhouse is 
the only building in the community that belongs to all, and in a 
definite way it reflects the civic standards of all. It is, therefore, 
important to express through it the highest attainable ideals of 
beauty and fitness, so that it may serve all acceptably. 

WORKROOMS NEEDED. 

The rural schoolhouse should be designed to accommodate and 
encourage many legitimate phases of school work now generally neg- 
lected in the country. All district schoolhouses, those for one- 
teacher schools as well as those of the consolidated type, should have, 
at least, one workroom — two would be better — where manual train- 
ing, domestic science, and related subjects could be taught accord- 
ing to laboratory methods. In a district where the number of school 
children does not exceed 30, one good-sized, well-lighted workroom 



44 EUKAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GROUNDS. 

can be made to accommodate both boys and girls by alternating 
their work. Here the boys can be taught to make useful articles of 
furniture for their homes or for the school, and to apply their arith- 
metic and drawing to real problems. Such work can not be done 
in the regular classroom. When a separate room is provided, much 
of the manual work can be done while the teacher is hearing other 
classes recite. The separate workroom will furnish an excellent op- 
portunity to place a definite responsibility on pupUs who work for a 
part of their time out of sight of the teacher, but near enough to call 
for direction whenever it is needed. Manual and domestic work is 
individual work and each pupil can be held to strict account for the 
faithful use of his or her time. 

An attempt to do manual training in a one-room rural school 
is shown in plate 2A, but certainly this is an unsatisfactory makeshift 
for a workroom. Under the conditions here shown the boys would 
either have to work out of school hours or else the rest of the school 
would have to take a vacation while they hammer and saw. Much 
cardboard work could be done without serious distraction; but very 
few vigorous boys take as kindly to cardboard carpentering as to 
making some real thing of wood. This interesting picture serves to 
emphasize in a more vigorous way than one could in words the need 
of a workroom for boys in a rural school. 

The boys can use the workroom as an agricultural laboratory as 
well as for shop work. The preparation of boxes for testing the 
germinating power of seeds, the study of soils and fertilizers, experi- 
ments on the growth of plants, and a large number of similar experi- 
ments call for a special room. This room could be used by the older 
boys two afternoons or two stated periods a week, by the older girls 
for a similar time, and possibly by boys and girls together for one 
period when things of common interest, like domestic hygiene and 
sanitation, house planning, studies in food values, drawing, could 
be worked out to the advantage of all the older pupils. The work- 
room is needed by the girls for cutting, sewing, cooking, canning, 
and millinery, for laundry work, and for all other subjects directly 
connected with women's work in the home. A well-prepared teacher 
can make the workroom of a district school a very significant con- 
necting link between the school life and the home. 

The ordinary district schoolhouse consists in general of a classroom 
only, and there will be a good deal of prejudice to overcome by 
those who wotdd introduce workrooms. The hoary and customary 
objection — "The schoolhouse I used as a boy had no workroom. 
I got along all right, and my children are no better than I" — will 
have to be met. This objection can be answered in some such 
fashion as this: 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOLHOUSE, 45 

Yes, you have done well; but why do you not use the same sort of a plow your 
father used? You find it to your advantage to use many kinds of toola he did not 
have. Would you be willing to deny yourself and your neighbors a modem har- 
vester because your father used a scythe and cradle? Would you be willing for 
your wife to do her cooking in an old-fashioned fireplace instead of on a modem stove? 
Would you have her do all your sewing by hand, as her mother did? Yes; they 
were as good as you and your wife; but conditions have changed, and you would not 
be as good as they if you did not take advantage of labor-saving devices, just as they 
did. They did the best they could, and would be ashamed of you, were they alive, 
if you did not do the same thing. 

Such argument may not convince all, for prejudice is not always 
amenable to reason. But it will rationalize the demands for work- 
rooms and will in the end serve a purpose. 

This demand will find more favor, however, if such objectors can 
be shown that it will often cost very little more to introduce work- 
rooms than to do as we have been doing; that is, building school- 
houses with classrooms larger than needed. There are not so many 
cliildren in many of the districts as there were 15 or 20 years ago. 
It is an unusual one-teacher country school that has an average 
daily attendance of 35 children. But suppose it does cost a little 
more to provide workrooms, that is no excuse for not doing it. 
A reaper costs more than a scythe and cradle, but it is worth more. 

No apology will be oiSered for introducing worki-ooms into most 
of the plans which follow later in this bulletin. They are needed, 
and the cliildren and the conmaxmity should have them. They 
should be fitted with tables, cases, di'awers, and benches, where tools 
and work could be kept safely during the progress of the work and 
when school is not in session. If possible, a small cooking stove 
should be installed and utiUzed for cooking an occasional warm 
luncheon for the children as a part of the work in domestic science, 
and on which, during social affairs at the schoolhouse, a pot of 
warm chocolate or a cup of tea could be prepared. This stove will 
not rust out during the summer, provided the schoolhouse is used as 
it should be, and as it will be if a proper incentive is furnished. With 
proper care, and that should be a part of the teaching, it would 
not rust through a summer even if not used at all. Special training 
in the care of tools would teach boys to take better care of tools 
and implements at home, as well as of public property, and this 
training is sorely needed by the average farmer. 

It is not proposed to keep children after school hours to do manual 
labor of any kind; the training should be a legitimate part of the 
daily program. Objection to such work will, of course, be urged 
by some teachers and patrons on the ground that the program is 
already overcrowded, and that if time for manual work is taken 
the course of study as outlined can not be completed and the exami- 
nations passed for promotion. Such objections have weight, and 



46 BUBAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GKOUNDS. 

some country teachers are so hedged about with rules, regulations, 
and rigid programs that they could at first do little along the lines 
of industrial work. It is difficult to cover all the work ordinarily 
mapped out, and demands for more time are constant from every 
one who is exploiting some specialty for the supposed betterment 
of the school. Each devotee to mathematics, nature study, geog- 
raphy, classic myths, Enghsh composition, grammar, local history, 
spelling, or what not is pleading, and sometimes scolding, for the 
greater recognition of her specialty, and by reason of this persuasion 
the curriculum is overcrowded, and too much fact-instruction is 
demanded. 

No specialty is exploited when ib is urged that every girl in a 
district school should learn something about home-making and home 
life in general. Girls will have to learn it some day, whether they 
learn it in school or not; in fact, most of it can not be learned in 
school, but only through actual experience; yet it is possible to 
interest deeply all girls, and boys, too, for that matter, in home 
sanitation, house planning, care of children, food values, sewing, 
cooking, and other things of fundamental importance to the home. 
These are not specialties; they are the common demands of life; 
and even if a girl is so fortunate as to be able to keep servants, 
she must know how to do such things in order to direct servants 
properly and economically. The demand for workrooms in the dis- 
trict schools in which boys and girls can be taught some of the things 
of practical life is part of the current demand for a more rational 
education for the children. By no means should the ordinary school 
work be neglected; but it ought to be shorn of its useless features 
and adapted to meet actual needs. 

CLASSROOMS. 

The size of the classroom in a district school should vary to suit 
the number of pupils of school age in the district, and more especially 
the probable number attending school. A room 30 feet long and 21 
feet wide will accommodate 35 pupils, will allow for 5 rows of desks — 
7 desks in each row — and will give ample aisles between the seats and 
about them. A room 32 feet long and 24 feet wide will accommodate 
40 to 45 pupils by placing 5 rows of desks and 8 to 9 desks in each 
row. In a room 30 feet long and 21 feet wide, such as shown in 
figure 16, 35 desks could be placed. The width of the aisle next the 
windows would be approximately 2 feet; the aisles between the rows 
of desks 18 inches wide; the space behind the last desk in each row 
3 feet; and the space between the inner waU and the first row of desks 
approximately 3 feet. The space between the first seat in each row 
and the front end of the room would be about 8 feet. This location 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOLHOUSE. 47 

of tlio desks insures good lightmg and will give suflRcient space 
about and between the desks to manage the classes without con- 
fusion. If we could enlarge this room 1 foot in width, retaining the 
same number of desks, the advantage would be considerable; for 
then instead of 3 feet between the inner wall and the first row of 
desks there would be 4 feet. This suggestion is made to emphasize 
the need of plenty of space next the blackboard most used by the 
children. The size of this room should be considered in relation to 
the fact that it will not be cumbered by bookcases or supplies of 
any sort; for it has been planned for a building which is to include 
workroom, libraiy, and cloakrooms. 

By reference to statistics concerning the nimiber of children attend- 
ing the average district school it will be seen that such a classroom 
would be amply large for the great majority of one-teacher rural 
schools. If, however, the indications in any district are that provision 
should be made for 40 to 45 desks, the other dimension of 32 by 24 
feet should be used. 

Country schools are in session usually during the winter season, 
and therefore are not as likely to be troubled by the presence of flies, 
mosquitoes, and similar pests as they would be if in session in summer; 
nevertheless in many parts of the country during the fall months 
jflies are particularly plentiful and dangerous. Whenever trouble 
from these plagues is liable to occur, wire screens should be provided 
for doors and windows, and every effort be made to prevent their 
presence in the schoolroom. This precaution will not only protect 
the children while in the schoolroom, but will impress upon them 
the great importance for such provision at their homes. 

The height of a classroom of this size need not exceed 12 or 12^ 
feet from finished floor to finished ceiling. If the building is located 
on a lot which will permit the lighting of the classroom from either 
east or west and there are no obstructions from taU buildings, high 
hills, or forest trees, 12 feet will be suflficient. This height wiU save 
a good deal of expense in the construction and maintenance of the 
building as compared with a building a foot higher. The placing 
of the windows will be considered carefully in another section. 

In planning this classroom and the other rooms in connection with 
it, the use of the basement as a furnace and fuel room should be borne 
in mind. If a classroom of this size must also accommodate a stove, 
it would be necessary to reduce the number of desks somewhat in 
order to give the proper space for the jacketed stove in the corner 
next the fuel room. 

Some objection may be raised to the size of this room because it 
is smaller than many one-teacher rural classrooms, but its freedom 
from any incumbrances whatever answers these objections. 



48 RURAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GROUNDS. 

FLOORS OF SCHOOL BUILDINGS. 

No more serious mistake can be made in the construction of a rural 
school building, unless it be in a failure to provide plenty of light, 
than in bad construction of floors. The floors of every country 
school should be made double, with some deadening material between 
them. This is necessary primarily to prevent the floors from being 
cold and to exclude the possibility of the entrance of ground air. 
The under or rough floor may be made of any well-seasoned, rough 
lumber, and should be laid diagonally across the floor joists and joined 
together carefully. When this floor is finished, it should be covered 
with some form of asbestos quilt, deadening felt, or, if expense must 
be reduced to its minimum, good quality of building paper. Upon 
this, at right angles with the joists, should be laid the boards of the 
main floor. 

Floor material of good quality is becoming more and more expen- 
sive, and as a result dealers are economizing by using lumber unfit for 
schoolroom floors. The best material to use is a good quality of white 
oak, well seasoned, in boards not more than 3 or 3| inches wide, 
tongued and grooved, and blind nailed or screwed. Nailing is much 
less expensive, and, if properly done, answers just as well. Floors, 
however, are often damaged by careless workmen in their efforts 
to draw the boards closely together; instead of using a nail set or 
carefully fitting the boards so that they will join together easily, 
they drive the nails in with a hatchet or hammer and frequently 
batter the edge of the board so that when the floor is completed 
it will show these marks and leave openings for the entrance of dirt. 
Those who have under their charge the construction of schoolhouses 
will save a great deal of future difficulty if they will hire someone 
to oversee the work of laying the floors. Such an overseer could 
select the boards, see that they were properly prepared, and prevent 
them from being marred in the nailing. 

If it is impossible, on account of expense, to use oak, a good quality 
of hard pine, with boards not more than 3 inches wide, properly 
tongued and grooved and set carefully, will make an excellent floor. 
Here again the supervisor should be on guard to prevent the use 
of any boards with pitch gashes or knots; otherwise the probability 
is that such boards will be used, and they will always make the room 
appear untidy and gather much dirt and dust. 

Maple flooring may be used, and, if properly laid and carefully 
kept, will prove satisfactory; but maple boards are soft, stain easily, 
show the dents of nails in shoes, and in general are more easily marred 
than either hard pine or oak. Maple, however, does not splinter so 
easily as pine and will generally wear longer. 



THE COtTNTKY SOHOOLHOUSE. 49 

After the floor has been laid it should be planed or sandpapered 
to an even surface. Before it is used it should be treated with hot 
linseed oil, and then, after it is thoroughly dried, it should be waxed. 
The oil will fill the pores of the flooring and prevent it from shrink- 
ing, and the wax will give it a finish so that it will not mar easily nor 
hold the dust. 

This is a more careful preparation of the floor than is usually 
made in constructing a district schoolhouse. The main things, how- 
ever, to be insisted on are double floors, a good quality of material 
for the upper floor, and careful laying. The care of the floors will 
be discussed in another section dealing with the general hygiene of 
the schoolroom. 

WALLS OF TirE CLASSROOM. 

As lumber has rapidly increased in cost during the last few years, 
and as the use of plastering made of cement or pulp has become 
much more common, comparatively few country schoolhouses are 
now built wliich have an all-wooden finish on the inside. In certain 
sections of the South, where lumber is less expensive, and in parts 
of the Far West, where buildings are remote from railways, class- 
rooms are stiU ceiled entirely mth wooden boards; but throughout 
the country as a whole most rural school buildings use some form of 
plastering for the walls. When it seems necessary, on account of 
convenience or expense, to use lumber, the boards should be well 
seasoned, not more than 3 or 4 inches in width, carefully tongued 
and grooved, and joined evenly. The chief difiiculty in the use of 
lumber for the ceiling is that it is often left unpainted, absorbs much 
light, and makes the schoolroom too dark. Those walls on which 
no blackboards are placed should be painted above the 4-foot line a 
very fight buff or grayish color, so that there will be no glare and yet 
the absorption of much light will be prevented. A clear white is 
objectionable, because it is Hable to reflect high lights and to over- 
stimulate the eyes of the children. The red end of the spectrum 
should never be used, because those colors absorb too much light, are 
objectionable in appearance, and produce disagreeable mental effects. 
Naturally, the walls above the blackboard should be painted the 
same color as the other walls. All walls carrying no blackboard 
should be stained or painted below the 4-foot fine a neutral fight 
brown or a dark gray. The walls below the blackboard should be 
treated in the same way. The ceiling overhead should be painted 
a fight gray. 

When plastering is used the surface should be made firm and 
hard, so that an occasional cleaning with a damp cloth wiU not harm 
it. Clear white plastered walls should be tinted a light, grayish 



50 RURAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GROUNDS. 

buff or, when light is plentiful, a sUght greenish tint naay be substi- 
tuted. Green, however, is a rather risky color to use because of 
the danger of introducing too much of it. The use of a light, grayish 
buff is in general to be recommended. 

If wainscoting is used below the windows and the blackboards, 
the boards composing it should be stained a light brown or a medium 
gray. This will prevent any strong and useless reflection into the 
eyes of the children when at work at their desks. 

The ceiling should be tinted a lighter color than the walls in order 
to prevent too much absorption of the Hght. 

BLACKBOARDS FOR CLASSROOMS. 

Ordinarily, the best blackboard material that can be used for rural 
schools without a good deal of expense is a prepared slate cement, 
which can be mixed and spread on as ordinary plaster. This costs 
more than the various forms of veneer or the preparations of pulp 
or cardboard now on the market, but if it is put on in the proper 
way it is much more permanent and will not buckle or draw away 
from the wall as the other material mentioned is inclined to do. If 
it is possible to use slate for the blackboards, it should be used by 
aU means, for, when carefully set, it wiU prove more satisfactory 
than any sort of manufactured blackboards. Glass blackboards are 
still better, but they are so expensive that it is not Hkely that they 
will be used for the ordinary district school. Glass blackboards are 
prepared as follows: A plate of heavy glass is ground on one side 
lightly, but thoroughly and evenly, and is slightly roughened on the 
other side; then this roughened side is painted the exact color that 
the board is to have. By setting this painted side against the wall 
the color is reflected through the glass to the other side and seems 
to be an integral part of the structure of the glass. The ground side 
is the side upon which the writing will be done. The grinding 
roughens the glass, which causes the chalk to leave a clear, distinct 
mark on it. 

Many experiments have been made in order to determine the proper 
color of the blackboard. In general the most satisfactory color is 
a dull black. A very sHght tint of green renders the blackboard a 
little more satisfactory and a little less conspicuous, but it is so 
easy to use too much green that one hesitates to recommend it. A 
decidedly green blackboard is very trying on the eyes and disturbing 
to the sensibilities. Many people suffer when in the presence of 
much greenish color, and for this reason it is generally safer, unless 
the work can be intrusted to some one who appreciates all these 
difficulties, to use a duU, dead black. The liquid slating, so called, 
often put directly upon the plastered walls, may prove faii-ly satis- 



THE COUMTKV SCliOOLilOUSK. 61 

factory for a time, but the plastering will soon begin to chip and 
discolor, and after some usage the board wiU look spotty and the 
crayon niarks will not give a clear, distinct impression. Money can 
be saved, therefore, by the use of a specially prepared cement black- 
board or of some good quality of the other preparations now on the 
market. 

HEIGHT OF BLACKBOAKDS. 

A district school must accommodate the children of all of the 
elementary grades, and hence the blackboards must be placed within 
the reach of all the children. The mistake of placing blackboards so 
high that the little folk can not use them is a very common error, 
which those who arc constructing a rural school should seek to avoid. 
If the blackboard on the wall opposite the windows is set 28 inches 
above the floor, the little folk will be able to use the lower part of this 
board to advantage. If the board is S^ feet wide the larger pupils 
will have no difl&culty in finding space at the proper height for their 
work. One can not do good work on a blackboard in a stooping 
posture, and the work can not be seen so readily if it is too high. 
The blackboard on the end wall near the teacher's desk will prove 
more satisfactory if set 3 feet above the floor and made 4 feet wi^e, 
for this space will bo utilized largely by tha teacher for illustrative 
work and for such assignments as she may wish to indicate on the 
board. The rear end of the room may also be utilized for blackboards 
when the ''breeze windows" are set as indicated in the floor plans 
suggested. The placing of this board may correspond with that at 
the other end of the room — that is, it should be set 3 feet above the 
floor and should be about 4 feet wide. The irregular line of the 
blackboards about the room will not be disagreeable, despite the 
opinion of some architects. 

No blackboards should be placed on the window side of the room. 
There should be no wall space of any conesquence left on the window 
side on which blackboards could be placed; there will be no space 
between the windows and only a short space in front of the windows, 
and this space ought not to be used for blackboards. It will not 
receive sufficient light, and it wiU be so badly placed with reference 
to the children seated at their desks that they wiU not be able to 
read easily anything written on it. The two ends of the room and the 
side opposite the windows will give space enough for blackboards. 

The chalk troughs underneath the blackboard should be wide 
enough to hold the erasers as well as the chalk, and should be deep 
enough to catch and hold the chalk dust dropping from the brush and 
the board surface. If a narrow strip of J-inch wire mesh is laid in 
this trough and is hinged so that it may be lifted when the trough is 
to be cleaned, it will keep the erasers from dipping into the chalk dust 



52 BUBAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GEOUNDS. 

and carrying it to the hands and to the board, and thence scattering 
it over the room. This device will cost very little and will prove very 
helpful and acceptable. 

DOORS OF SCHOOLROOMS. 

Comparatively little may be said concerning the doors of school- 
rooms, for those generally used are of the stock pattern, and no others 
are ordinarily available. It is to be hoped that we shall get away 
from the ordinary panel doors in time, especially for school buildings, 
and come to use the plain door without panels. These are now manu- 
factured in a few places and have proved acceptable. No panels 
mean no ledges to gather dust and dirt; and plain doors are easily kept 
clean. 

The outer door of the schoolhouse should swing outward, both as a 
protection against danger from fire and against the driving rains. 
The positions of the doors of the schoolrooms, workrooms, and libra- 
ries shown in the various floor plans are worth the attention of those 
who are planning school buildings. 

• TRANSOMS. 

Transoms in schoolreoms, and for that matter in dwelling rooms, 
are largely a delusion and a snare. They are usually the dirtiest 
places in the room, are rarely used, and have been continued from 
time immemorial out of mere habit. Generally they are so far out of 
reach and so hard to open that they can not be used. As a result they 
merely add to the expense of building, gather dust, and render the 
room untidy. It costs a great deal more to set transoms properly 
than one would imagine. The "breeze windows" and the doors and 
windows in the adjoining rooms jnay be utiUzed for breezes in hot 
weather much more safely and easily than transoms. Those who 
are planning rural schoolhouses would do well to abandon transoms. 

PICTURE MOLDINGS IN SCHOOLROOMS. 

One is loath to advise the leaving out of picture moldings in school- 
rooms and dwelling houses; they are very convenient and useful; 
and without them walls are usually marred and rendered unsightly 
by the use of nails and other fastenings for hanging pictures; but 
these moldings gather so much dust and dirt that a schoolroom on 
the whole is better off without them. Some inconspicuous nails or 
screw hooks may be fastened to the woodwork of the walls without 
marring them and without catching the dust. Incidentally it should 
be noted that it is not infrequent to find too many pictures in school- 
rooms. Few things are more tiresome than a wall loaded down with 
a hodgepodge of various kinds of pictures. 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOLHOUSE. 53 

CLOAKROOMS. 

Every country school should have a special room where children 
can hang up their %\Taps and place tlieir lunch baskets in safety and 
out of the dust and bad atmosphere of the schoolroom. Two cloak- 
rooms, one for the boys and one for the girls, would be better than a 
single cloakroom for both boys and girls; but, if a single room is 
properly placed, liglitod, ventilated, and heated, it will serve the 
purpose. In the chapter on the hygienic condition of rural schools it 
was shown tliat a comparatively small percentage of rural schools are 
furnished with cloakrooms and that in the main the children have to 
hang tlieir wraps in the classroom or stack them up in piles on unused 
benches. No argument seems necessary to prove that such care of 
children's wraps is not only untidy, but dangerous because of infec- 
tious diseases. If hooks for wraps are placed on the schoolroom walls, 
they will prevent the use of these walls for blackboards, render the 
room unsightly, contaminate the air with odors from damp or soiled 
garments, and absorb some of the light. Furthermore, wraps so 
placed wiU be knocked down as the cliildren pass about in the school- 
room. Merely from the point of view of economy, it wiU require 
almost as much space to make room for hooks and passageways 
about the wraps within the classroom as it would to partition off a 
part of the building specifically for this purpose. No teacher can 
make a room appear attractive and well cared for when all kinds of 
wraps are hung upon the walls, and it is one business of the school to 
teach children the proprieties of life. When cloakrooms are properly 
located, they can be carefully supervised by the teacher, and this 
will lessen the probabiHty of pilfering. The loss of umbrellas, over- 
shoes, and other similar articles is frequently very troublesome to 
the teacher, as weU as to the pupils. Cloakrooms are necessary, and 
every plan set forth in this bulletin calls for them. 

LIBRARY AND TEACHER's ROOM. 

It may be repeated that the school building belongs to the whole 
community and not simply to the children who are attending school 
and the teacher who is employed. It is generally the only community 
property within the district, and, hence, everybody has a right to 
use it, under proper restrictions, and to make it the general civic 
center of the community. Practically all district schools through- 
out the country have or should have some general reference books, 
and they need decent places to keep these books where they can be 
consulted readily, easily, and without disturbance. It is not neces- 
sary in a small district school to have a large room for the library, but 
the Ubrary room should be made the most beautiful and interesting 



54 RUEAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GROUNDS. 

one in the building. Here little touches of decoration and comfort 
may appear and an atmosphere of quiet study be suggested. 

Many of the books found in school hbraries can be used to advan- 
tage in interesting the patrons in the community in what tlie school is 
attempting to do and is doing, and a special effort should be made to 
collect such books as the people need. One of the general reasons 
why country people do not read more good books, and why they read 
newspapers instead, is that the newspapers are brought to them and 
that books, even if found in the school Hbrary, are kept there and 
are not readily accessible. 

Many States have provided by legal enactment for the estabhsh- 
ment and maintenance of libraries in country schools. Lists have 
been made out by committees and officers to guide in the selection of. 
books. But for the most part these books must be kept on shelves or 
in bookcases within the classrooms and be used by the pupils at their 
desks while classes are being conducted. As a result the school 
library is not used effectively by the pupils unless the teacher has 
special aptitude for interesting them in the books at hand. Adults 
have difficulty in giving undivided attention to their reading when 
they are surrounded by much noise and confusion. School children 
have still less power to focus and hold their attention. Moreover, 
the ordinary classroom with its necessary discipHne does not furnish 
the incentive nor the atmosphere of a reading room. A Hbrary room 
can be made attractive at little expense. It can be kept neat and 
tidy, and will exert a tranquihzdng effect on the children who are 
accorded the privilege of using it. The mere experience of being in 
a room devoted to bool^ and reading will create a new sort of senti- 
ment for books and develop a love and respect for them. 

A district-school library should not be restricted to the use of the 
pupils in attendance. The books belong to the community, and all 
who can make worthy use of them should have access to them. 
Therefore, with a special library room available, children who have 
left school and all adults in the district should be invited to come at 
any time during school hours to read and to borrow books for home 
reading. This use of the books would be impossible if they were 
kept in the classroom, for the work of the regular recitations 
must go on and the teacher's time be left undisturbed. In brief, the 
country-school library should be the pubhc library for that commu- 
nity, and the school building should be designed with this in mind. 

The question of the size of this room would naturally arise here. 
How much space can be spared, or rather, how much can be provided 
for a library room ? There will not be a large collection of books in 
most of the rural schools for a long time to come, and, hence, from 
the point of view of providing room for books, only a small space will 
be needed. Shelves can be built in the waUs at little expense and 



THE COUNTRY SCH00LH0U6E. 55 

without encroaching much on the space available, but a room large 
enough to provide for a reading table and a few chairs will be neces- 
sary. Furthermore, the library room should in many buildings, and 
perhaps in most one-teaclicr buildings, be used also as a teacher's 
room. For her accommodation a small wardrobe, a washstand, and 
a mirror would suffice. The school supplies also can be kept in this 
room. 

The library room will aflford the teacher opportunity to confer 
privately with patrons and school officers. Teachers will soon learn 
that when parents call to present a grievance it will appreciably 
lessen any possible friction to send them to this room where an 
atmosphere of quiet and dignity prevails and to allow a few minutes 
to elapse before conferring with them. The more beautiful and taste- 
ful this room can be made, the easier it will be to come to an amicable 
agi'eement. For these various reasons, in many of the floor plans 
presented for one-teacher buildings one room is planned to serve as a 
library and a teacher's room. 

A room 10 feet long and 8 feet wide will generally be large enough 
for both purposes, especially if the windows are correctly set and the 
shelves and wardrobe are built into the wall. 

This room should open only into the classroom, so as to give the 
teacher entire control of it and to make it possible to keep it warm from 
the classroom stove. If its location should afford an opportimity 
to build a small fireplace in it in connection with the chimney for the 
classroom stove, its usefulness and cheerfulness would be appreciably 
increased. The floor should be stained and waxed, and some taste- 
ful, inexpensive rugs be supplied. 

If this library room can be made a sort of spiritual and intellectual 
sanctuary for the community, its reflex influences will be seen and 
felt in many unexpected ways. A tasteful, cozy, and inviting hbrary 
room in some of our district schools would help mightily to develop a 
dissatisfaction with rusty stoves, broken window panes, dirty floors, 
a hodgepodge of chromos on the walls, ill-kept school grounds, 
and that general air of neglect so commonly seen about country 
schoolliouses. This reflex influence might reach beyond the school 
grounds. 

The possible use of the library room in connection with social 
activities in the community needs only to be mentioned. The room 
would be too small, of course, to attempt to entertain in it alone, 
but in connection with the workrooms and the classroom, it would 
prove a place for some social features that would aid in making the 
community life more enjoyable. 

If some such plans for a library room could be wrought out, and the 
books be selected and used with reference to the special needs of the 



56 RUKAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GROUNDS. 

community, the people would soon be willing to increase the expendi- 
ture for books and would develop a commendable pride in their pubhc- 
school library. 

BASEMENTS. 

Until recent years very few rural schoolhouses have been con- 
structed with basement rooms, and these have been in the colder 
climates of the north, but with the use of basement rooms there 
has been a growing recognition of their value in rural schools. In 
the first place, a good basement furnishes the best location for a 
furnace for heating the building. The word ''furnace" is used here 
instead of ''jacketed stove;" the only difference between a jacketed 
stove and a furnace is that the jacket surroimding the furnace is 
open at the top only through ducts or pipes, which are devised to 
conduct the warm air to different parts of the building. In all 
essentials, a hot-air furnace is merely a modified jacketed stove. 
When a fiu-nace is used in a basement, it will be possible to heat 
directly, not only the classroom, but the workrooms, Hbrary, and 
cloakrooms. This will give a much more satisfactory and even 
heat to the various rooms than if dependence were placed upon a 
jacketed stove within the classroom itself. Furthermore, it will give 
an opportunity to ventilate all the rooms to good advantage. By 
placing the heating device in the basement, space will be saved in the 
classroom and a greater amount of space for fuel can be economically 
provided than would be easily possible on the first floor. 

In the second place it would obviate much dirt, dust, and confusion 
in the classroom. In spite of all one can do, even with the use of 
wood, a stove in the classroom is a source of a good deal of fitter in one 
form or another, and it always makes the room appear untidy and ill 
kept. Moreover, a building is less endangered by fire when a furnace 
is properly placed in the basement than it is with a stove located 
within the classroom. There is always some danger of fire dropping 
on the fioor, or of doors coming open out of school hours and thus 
endangering the building. A good basement with a cement floor 
and carefully protected joists above to prevent overheating from the 
furnace reduces the possibifity of danger from fire to a minimum. A 
furnace also generally has a better draft than a jacketed stove set 
in the room above because of the greater distance between the intake 
of the smoke flue and the exit at the top of the chimney. The fresh - 
air duct can be easily arranged from the outside through the basement 
to the furnace without in the least disturbing the general appearance 
or structure of the building. In another place more extended discus- 
sion will be made of the heating of schoolrooms. 

Basements are always advantageous for the location of toilets 
and baths. This matter will be taken up in another chapter; it 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOLHOUSE. 5Y 

is sufficient here simply to state the fact in order to make clearer 
the value of basements under rural schoolhouses. 

It has boon said above that a basement offers opportunity for a 
larger fuel room than can bo accommodated on the main floor. 
Tliis is a very important matter. In cold chmates it is absolutely 
necessary to have some convenient and ample space for the storage 
of fuel for the winter, else the teacher or the pupils will be exposed 
to the weather in bringing in fuel and cleaning the stove of ashes. 
With a basement under a rural schooUiouse, ample room can be 
secured for the storage of sufficient fuel to last through the winter. 
This can be put in before the beginning of school and will be safe 
from rain and snow and will be in far better condition than if it 
were in some detached outbuilding. It is impracticable to attempt to 
build a fuel room sufficiently large on the main floor to accom- 
modate a year's supply of fuel. 

Doubtless the main objections which will be raised against the 
constiTiction of basements under rural schoolhouses are the expense 
of construction and the difficulty of keeping them in a sanitary 
condition. A basement should not be constructed in a school building 
located on flat, wet land, unless there are abundant opportunities 
for properly underdraining it, or, rather, surrounding it with drains 
so that it will not become damp or allow water to seep in diu-ing a 
rainy season. 

The best method of keeping basements diy is to surround them with 
tile drains, set at least a foot below the level of the basement floor. 
To suiTound the building with tiles is better than to attempt to run 
a drain beneath the floor. The tiles must be large enough to carry 
away all of the water flowing toward the basement, and the ditch 
must be so constructed that there will be ample flow into it from all 
dii'ections. Comparatively little local surface water sinks into the 
drain; the water comes up from below into the drain and is thus 
carried away, frequently after having traveled a long distance 
undergromid. This principle is not generally understood by those 
who have not had large experience with the use of drain tiles. The 
pressure of the water increases with the depth and naturally that 
lower down would be the first to escape, just as in artesian wells. 
If, therefore, a drain is placed all about a school building and below 
the level of the basement floor, there is no probabihty that any flow of 
underground water will reach the school building, for it will be carried 
off through the tiles thus placed. 

When a rural-school building is located on high, graveUy soil, 
with no drainage toward it from any direction, it will not be necessary 
to surround the building with a drain, for a good, strong cement 
floor and cement walls will prevent the entrance of any moisture 

40742°— Bull. 12—14 5 



58 BUBAL SCHOOLHOTJSES AND GROUNDS. 

that might otherwise come in. However, it is generally safer and 
frequently not expensive to surromid the building with a drain as 
indicated, and this makes assurance doubly sure. 

Under ordinary conditions eaves troughs and leaders should be 
provided to carry away the water from the roof of the bunding. If 
there are no eaves troughs, the water wiU. fall down all about the, 
building and saturate the ground, making it difficult to keep the 
basement walls dry. The water from the roof should be carried 
away a sufficient distance to prevent any of it from finding its way 
back to the basement. When a drain is placed well below the level 
of the basement floor, the roof water can be carried down through 
the leaders and through cemented sewer tiles into the drain. Care 
must be taken, however, to prevent the debris which gathers on the 
roof and in the gutters from clogging the leaders or the drain below. 
Generally, there should be some form of trap between the sewer tile 
and the end of the leaders to catch the coarser materials and thus 
prevent clogging. 

Eaves troughs, however, have their disadvantages, especially in 
cold climates. Frequently, when the roof is covered with snow and 
the atmosphere is below the freezing point at the eaves, the heat 
escaping from the school room wiQ cause the underside of the snow 
to melt. A part of this water will freeze in the troughs and leaders 
and in time they will be clogged with ice and rendered worse than 
useless. Some builders in the north have given up the eaves troughs 
and depend on a drain directly below the eaves to catch and carry 
away the water falling from the roof. They lay the drain a safe 
distance below the level of the walls, give it a good gradient, fill the 
space above it to within a few inches of the surface with coarse 
broken stone or boulders, put a thin coat of soil and sod over the 
broken stone, and thus let the water sink quickly to the tiles. When 
stone is near at hand, this method of drainage will cost less than 
the use of leaders and eaves troughs and has proved acceptable in 
many places. 

Besides the difficulty experienced with ice, eaves troughs are easily 
clogged with leaves and are frequently broken. Constant care should 
be exercised to keep them in proper condition. 

The space to be excavated for a basement will not necessarily be 
of the same size as the school building. If it seems necessary to 
economize, only such excavation need be made as wiU give sufficient 
space for the use of the basement as indicated. 

The height of the basement is a matter that can not be definitely 
settled once for all; each location wiU offer different conditions of 
drainage and surrounding topography. Jft some places it wiU be 
possible to excavate to a greater depth with safety than at others. 
Besides, the size and shape of the building v/iU have a good deal to 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOLHOUSE. 59 

do witli the amount of basement walls showing above the ground. 
Ordinarily tlic distance between the finished floor of the basement 
and the joists of the floor above is about 8 feet. If the depth of the 
finished floor is 4 foot lower than the surface of the ground around 
the building, it would bo necessary to raise the foundation wall 4 feet 
above the surfaoe of the ground, and unless the building is rather 
low and wido this would l(^ave tlio foundation wall too high and 
make it difficult for the exterior to maintain proper proportions. If 
the excavation is 5 feet below the surface of the ground, precaution 
wiU be necessary to prevent the entrance of ground water and to 
keep the basement from becoming damp and unhealthful. 

The contour of the ground and the nature of the soil, as well as 
opportunities for carrying water away from the building will have 
much to do with the depth of the basement. It is possible to make 
a basem<int, where work rooms are not to be installed, usable and 
sanitary when the height between the cement floor and the bottom 
of the joists supporting the floor above is only 7 feet. In this case 
it wiU^generally be necessary, however, to set the furnace in a water- 
tight cemented pit a foot deeper than the level of the basement floor, 
so as to keep the top of it at a safe distance from the floor joists 
above. 

UNILATERAL LIGHTING. 

If the great majority of children were not right-handed, it would 
be unreasonable to demand that the windows be so j^laced in school- 
rooms as to admit the light from the left side of the pupils when 
seated at theu* desks. But, since we are a right-handed race, with 
brains organized accordingly, the great majority of children are rid 
of troublesome shadows in writing only when light is admitted from 
the left side, thus carrying the shadows away from the written work 
and relieving the vision from the disturbances which would other- 
wise come. If the reader will take a seat in a closed room near a 
window and attempt to write with the hand which is next the win- 
dow, he will realize more fuUy than words can tell how the shadows 
of his hand and pen will trouble him. Children sufifer more from 
such disturbances than older people, because their eyes tire more 
quickly and their attention is more easily distracted. Hence it is a 
matter of importance to the health and comfort of aU right-handed 
children to be so placed in the school room that light should come 
from the left rather than from the right. 

All left-handed children should be taught from the first to write 
with their right hands. Contrary to the general belief, this is not a 
serious undertaking if it is made when the chdd is just learning to 
write. If, however, a child has not been early taught to use his 
right hand and has reached the upper grades with an estabhshed 



60 RURAL SCHOOLHOUSBS AND GROUNDS. 

habit of using his left hand, for writing, it is often better to let him 
continue rather than to insist on a late change. In all cases, how- 
ever, it is only fair to the left-handed, writers to seat them, if possible, 
so that the light may come from their right, so as to throw the shad- 
ows back of their hands. But, since the great majority are right- 
handed, schoolhouses should be built to meet their needs and special 
provision be made for those who have not been taught the use of 
the right hand for writing. 

But some one may ask: "Why not have windows on both sides of 
a classroom, for is it not impossible to have too much well-diffused 
light in a schoolroom?" Until very recently all school buildiiigs 
were constructed in this manner, and. it is stiU hard to convince some 
people that lighting from one side is better than lighting from both 
sides. 

Suppose we consider a schoolroom with east and west exposure, 
with the same number of windows on each side, located in the same 
relative positions. At 10 o'clock in the morning, other things being 
equal, the light is stronger from the east than from the west, aj;id the 
line where the light from each side is equally strong is weU toward 
the west side of the room. This line will shift toward the east side 
the rest of the day, reaching the center at noon. But at any time 
in the day there are always two shadows of the hand and pen. These 
shadows are of equal intensity only at this shifting line of equal light. 
Here they are comparatively inconspicuous, but still visible. To the 
left or right of this changing line one shadow is stronger, and hence 
it is impossible to seat all pupils so as to give them an equally good 
light for writing. There is no desk in the whole room where double 
shadows of the hand and pen may not be seen; but those pupils who 
receive the stronger light from the side opposite the hand used in 
writing experience less difiS.culty. If the heavy shadow falls athwart 
the work and within the focus of the vision, it will fatigue the eyes 
uselessly. For this reason it is impossible to seat all of the pupils 
in a schoolroom with bilateral lighting without imposing some slight 
hardship on aU and a serious hindrance on something less than half 
of them. 

There are other reasons why bilateral lighting is not to be preferred. 
The best place for a blackboard is directly opposite the source of 
light, and hence it ought to be placed on the wall of one side of the 
classroom. The common custom has been to place the blackboards 
between the windows on both sides. Such a setting of blackboards 
is responsible for an untold amount of eyestrain, headache, and 
habits of inattention. He who reads these lines and can not recall from 
his school days a distinct memory of pain from such blackboards will 
understand the justice of the criticism if he will face an unshaded 
window and attempt to follow the demonstration of a problem 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOLHOUSE. 61 

whoso solution is worked out on a board adjoining the window. It 
must bo remembered that the eye is to a large degi-ee an automatic 
or reflex organ and accordingly accommodates itself to the light 
entering it. If one looks at work on a blackboard adjoining a win- 
dow, a conflict in the demands of vision takes place. The strong 
light from the window causes the pupil to contract so as to reduce the 
number of rays of light which would otherwise enter the eye and over- 
stimulate and shock the retina. But this is just the opposite of what 
the eye demands in order to read easily what is written on the black- 
board; for when the eye is focused on a dark siu-face the pupil expands 
so that all the needed available Hght may enter. This conflict is the 
cause of much eyestrain, fatigue, and the accompanying revulsions. 

Young cliildren should not spend much time studying work writ- 
ten on blackboards; but we can not do without blackboards nor 
without frequently du-ecting the attention of the cliildren to work 
placed on them. It may be argued that there would be space enough 
on the end walls for all the blackboards needed, and that it is unnec- 
essary to locate them between windows on the sides. Frequently, 
however, the teacher's end of the room is broken by doors to cloak- 
room, fuel room, or hbrary, and all the available blackboard there 
found is needed for assignments and directions. The rear of the room, 
even if not broken by doors, is too far removed from many of the 
pupils to make a blackboard placed there effective for class demon- 
strations. Besides, the light on the end of the room is generally not 
so good as it is on the wall directly opposite the light. It is a rational 
conclusion, then, to say that even if unilateral hghting were not in 
accordance with the demands of hygiene it would still be wise to 
locate all the windows on one side, so that the other niight be used for 
blackboards. 

Contrary to the usual behef, hght coming directly from above the 
desks introduces more disturbing shadows than" that coming from the 
left. For this reason alone lateral lighting is generally preferable 
in schoohooms to sky lighting, though the latter is often helpful in 
cities where tall buildings obstruct the light or where troublesome 
reflections from outside buildings are likely to overstimulate and 
fatigue the eyes. 



Chapter VII. 

PLANS FOR RURAL SCHOOLHOUSES. 



The various plans exhibited in this bulletin are introduced for the 
purpose of furnishing to district-school authorities some specific sug- 
gestions to aid them in the planning and construction of rural school- 
houses. The variety of plans corresponds to the varying conditions 
met with. Some communities are able to construct buildings of 
ample size; others are limited in means. Some neighborhoods, with 
smaU school population, need small buildings; others, whose school 
population is growing, need larger buildings. Some communities can 
command the means to equip a building with modern conveniences; 
others will have to reduce expense to the minimum; and some must 
think of consolidation and the sort of building and equipment such 
conditions demand. Problems of rural education are so diverse that 
no one building can be designated as a standard building. There are 
some conditions which every building ought to meet and which have 
been set forth briefly in the earlier chapters of the bulletin; but, in 
other respects, country school-buildings must be constructed to meet 
the demands of the particular neighborhoods which they are to serve. 

Model No. 1. 

The first model presented is that of a one-teacher school building, 
including one cloakroom, a teacher's room, a library, a workroom for 
the girls, a fuel room, a toilet for the boys and one for the girls. This 
building is designed to accommodate about 40 pupils.^ The plate 
showing the interior arrangements of the various rooms is from a pho- 
tograph taken of the model with the roof removed. The number of 
desks shown in this cut is too great. The desks are properly located, 
but each wiU occupy more space than is shown in the illustration. 

It is to be noted that in this building the main entrance is on the 
side. This, as has been said in the discussion on the location of the 
schoolhouse, is not, in general, the most satisfactory place for the 
main entrance to a one-teacher rural school building, because in a 
way it necessitates placing the long side of the building toward the 
roadway from which the entrance is made. However, school ofiicers 

1 See plate 6. 
62 



PLANS FOR RURAL SCHOOLHOUSES. 



63 



are Bometimes compelled to select a location with east or west frontage, 
and in such locations, if the main entrance is placed in the end of the 
building, the broad sides of the rooms would lie north and south, and 
this would make it exceedingly difficult to secure good lighting. The 
floor plan of this building was drawn with this difficulty in mind and is 
designed to help solve it. This plan can be used on a lot fronting 
east or west, and in either case will get good lighting. The plan con- 
templates facing west, so that the classroom would be lighted from 
the east. This will shield the classroom from the north and west 
winds in winter, and also, to some degree, from the heat in summer. 
The only difficulty with this orientation would be that the workroom, 
designed for the girls, would have only north light. If the building 
were faced toward the east and dependence were placed on west light 
for the classroom, then the workroom and library would get the south 




Fig. 1.— Front elevation, Model 2. 

exposure. The choice between the two orientations should depend 
on local conditions. Either will be, in the main, satisfactory. 

In this building toilets are shown for the boys and the girls, the one 
for the boys being just to the left of the entrance from the outside, 
and the one for the girls opening off the workroom, wliich is largely 
designed for the special work that girls will engage in. Some objec- 
tion might be offered to opening the girl's toilet into the workroom. 
It would be better if this could be easily avoided, but since this work- 
room wiU be occupied for the most part by the girls, it will be easy for 
the teacher to maintain proper privacy in it. If, however, it should 
seem advisable to use this workroom for both boys and girls, the pro- 
gram for the boys can be so arranged that no inconvenience for the 
girls will arise. Furthermore, the door into this toilet room may be 
made through the fuel room by slightly enlarging the space for the 
fuel room and that marked for the girls' toilet, and thus due privacy 
could be mamtained. Of course where running water is not available, 
the toilet rooms shown could be left out or be used for other purposes. 



64 



BTTRAL SCHOOLHOUSBS AND GROUNDS. 



The boys' room could be easily transformed into an additional cloak- 
room, and that for the girls be thrown into the fuel room or used as a 
tool room. The time is coming soon, however, when washout toilets 
wiU be more common in country schools, for the pressure-tank system 
of water supply will meet this demand. 

In this building the light for the library comes from two sides, and 
the room will therefore be well lighted and properly purified by 
sunshine. Those who read or work in this room can easily adjust 
themselves so that there will be no need for anyone to face the light. 
The room is arranged to open only from the classroom and is thereby 
under constant and direct control of the teacher. Bookcases should 
be built in the walls. There will then be plenty of room for a reading 
table and chairs for those who are sent here to do their work. This 
library room should be made as attractive as funds will permit. The 




Pig. 2.— Rear elevation, Model 2. 

children will consider the privilege of using it as a sort of reward of 
merit, and the teacher can use it effectively for many purposes. 

The use of the workroom will, of course, depend upon many condi- 
tions. It will be noticed that the chimney passes up through this 
room, and hence a small range could be placed in it and the girls be 
taught scientific cookery. Tables and cases could be located in it for 
the purpose of teaching the designing, cutting, and making of girls' 
clothing. If the boys are to be taught also in tliis room, a work- 
bench could be installed and certain lines of manual work could be 
engaged in. 

The cloakroom to the right of the main entrance is designed for the 
use of both the boys and the girls, and has a door opening directly into 
the classroom. By a little careful supervision and proper arrangement 
of hooks, cases, and shelves, this room should be ample for the number 
of pupils it is designed to accommodate. If, however, at times the 
older girls should need a httle more privacy, the workroom could be 
utilized for them. 



PLANS FOR RURAL SCHOOLHOUSES. 65 

The teacher's room la located ofT the front end of the classroom 
and is designed as a private place where the teacher may keep her 
wraps, and, if need be, keep the supplies for the school. In tliis plan, 
the teacher's room need not be utilized in any way as a reception 
room, for the library can better s.erve that purpose. 

The classroom receives all of its light from one siae, and the win- 
dows on this side are placed well to the rear. The bottoms of the 
windows are 4 feet above the floor, and their tops extend to within a 
few inch(^s of the ceiling. 

The cul)ical contents of this building between the floor and the main 
ct»iling and tlie outside walls is approximately 15,700 cubic feet. The 
cost of construction, of course, will depend upon the kind of material 
used on local markets, both as to material and labor, and the kind of 
finish and furniture used on the interior. The model from which the 
photographs were made was designed and constructed by Messrs. 
Cooper & Bailey, architects, of Boston. There are no difficulties in 
the way of construction. 

The interior floor plan can be modified to some degree without 
serious disturbance; for example, if the library were furnished with 
a wardi'obo to accommodate the teacher, the cloakroom could be 
enlarged to advantage. However, it would be a mistake to put 
anything in the library that would have a tendency to limit its useful- 
ness or disturb the opportunity for making it attractive and beautiful. 

As has already been said, if the workroom is to be used for both 
boys and girls, it would then be advisable to open the door into the 
gu'ls' toilet from the fuel room. The fuel space could be boxed in, and 
there would be sufficient passageway tlirough the fuel room into the 
toilet room. This would make the location of this room less objec- 
tionable. 

A closer view of this building shows that the front steps are 
shielded partly by a small overhanging roof. The front door is 
protected from the weather. The floor of the open passageway should 
be cement or terrazzo. The only objection to leaving this passageway 
open to the outside as indicated is the danger of tramps or other dis- 
reputable travelers taking advantage of it as a place to tarry at night. 
If need be, the steps could be set in and double outside doors could 
be included. In the milder parts of the country this outside door 
would not be necessary. In colder northern regions the outside should 
be closed with double doors, thus preventing the snows from drift- 
ing in. 

It would be a pity to disturb in any way the lines of the exterior, the 
pitch of the roof, the width of the eaves, the height of the windows, 
the height of the gables, or the lines of the windows, for they aU blend 
into an almost perfect unity. A building with such deUcate fines as 



66 



BUEAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GEOUNDS. 



this should not be marred with eaves troughs or leaders. The wall 
should be protected by a tile drain all about the building located 
directly under the eaves, as described on a preceding page. 

The little touches of art indicated in the style of the window sash 
may be neglected without any serious disadvantage. The color of the 
model shown by this photograph is pine white. It would not be 
at all necessary to follow this color scheme in a building constructed 
after this model; in fact, the building would be less conspicuous and 
more beautiful if a darker neutral shade were used for the roof and 
the sides. A dark weathered brown for the outer walls and a dark 




Fig. 3. — Floor plan of one-teacher school, Model 2. 

moss green for the roof would make the building blend much better 
with the average country neighborhood than if it were treated in 
white. Any carpenter or builder should be able to take the measure- 
ments of these drawings and photographs and construct this building 
in exactly the same beautiful form. 

Model No. 2. 

The above floor plan of model 2 shows a one-teacher rural school- 
house, with a classroom in the center of the building, and with the 
workrooms and hbrary grouped around it on three sides. This build- 
ing is also designed, as in model l,.to occupy a lot having an east or 



PLANS FOR RURAL SCHOOLHOUSES. 



67 



west frontage, and to make an entrance in the side of the building. 
If the front of the building is situated on a lot facing west, then the 
lighting of the classroom would come from the east, and the boys' work- 
room woidd receive the south light, the ghls' workroom would receive 
north and west light, the library would have south and west light, 
the cloalo-ooms would both receive west light. However, this build- 
ing could bo located so as to face east and bo equally well situated with 
reference to the lighting. The advantage in facing it west lies in the 
fact that the classroom would be shielded somewhat in winter from 
west and north winds. This plan is more elaborate than the first one, 
because it has two workrooms, one for the boys and one for the girls. 



Boy/ Toilet 
8x12' 



1 



^ 



Work,t,com 



T'aelcTwt-n.occ: 



Qirl/' 
To,lc+ 



Un excavated 



Fig. 4.— Suggested basement for Model 2. 

This is a decided advantage. It gives room for different kinds 
of manual traming equipment, and develops a sense of responsibility 
in both boys and girls by having special rooms for their special work. 
The library is not quite so large, but there are two smaU cloakrooms, 
one for the boys and one for the girls ; in addition, there is a fuel room 
in the rear of the classroom and a smaU room for tools, drawers, and 
cases adjoining the girls' workroom. 

No toilets have been planned in this building, and the basement 
would have to be arranged for them or else detached buildings used. 
The accompanying drawing (fig. 4) shows how the basement could 
be arranged both for heating apparatus and for the location of toilets 
and baths and offers suggestions to those neighborhoods with sufficient 
funds at hand and opportunity to supply running water. 

The classroom, as was said, is situated in the middle of the building, 
with only one outside wall. The windows in this room have been 



68 RUEAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GEOUNDS. 

grouped closely together on the rear and left of the children when in 
their seats. The windows are set 4 feet above the floor and are 3 feet 
wide and 8 feet high. The distance from the finished floor to the ceil- 
ing is 12^ feet. 

Blackboards in this room are set on three sides of the room; none 
are on the window side. At the front end of the room, near the teach- 
er's desk, the blackboard should be set 3J feet above the floor and 
should be 3 J feet wide. On the other sides it is better to set the 
blackboards 28 inches from the floor and to make them 4 feet wide. 

Wainscotmg should be placed beneath the windows and beneath 
the blackboards all around the room. On the window side, this wains- 
cotmg should reach to the lower part of the window casing; on the 
other side to the chalk trough. 

The walls above the wainscoting and those above the blackboards 
should be plastered with the best material and, before the building is 
used, should be tinted a Hght grayish buff or a very inconspicuous 
shade of grayish green. The colors of the red end of the spectrum 
should not be used in a schoohoom. 

If a basement is provided under this building, the entrances to it 
should be from each end, beneath the workrooms, and these entrances 
should be guarded by some form of covering that would harmonize 
with the architectural design of the building. A fiu-nace could be 
located at the most convenient place in the basement, preferably near 
the center, and from that point hot-air pipes could be carried to the 
workrooms, library, and classroom. 

If provision is made for a fuel room in the basement, a fuel room 
on the main floor wiU not be needed, and that room could be utilized 
as a teacher's room. The floor plan was drawn on the supposition 
that no basement would be provided, and the location of a jacketed 
stove and chimney are indicated. If a basement is provided, as 
suggested, walks should extend around the building and provision 
should be made for tile drainage. 

The classroom is 30 feet long and 24 feet wide and has desk room 
for 35 to 40 pupils. 

The hojs' workroom, situated immediately back of the teacher's 
desk, is 24 feet long and 8 feet wide. It is lighted entirely from one 
side and has a door opening into the classroom near the library room. 
Cases could be built in the outer end of the boys' workroom for tools 
and models used in connection with the shopwork. 

The girls' workroom as shown is approximately 25 feet long and 8 
feet wide and is lighted from two sides. A door opens into this room 
directly opposite the door into the boys' workroom, and thus aUows 
passage along the wide aisle between the last row of seats and the 
imier wall. 



PLANS FOR RURAL SCHOOLHOUSES. 69 

Blackboards should be set in both of these workrooms on the inner 
walls and should be 3^ feet above the floor and 3 feet wide. These 
blackboards can be used for many pur])oses, but are chiefly designed 
for drawings, lesson assignments, and plans in connection with the 
work done in these rooms. 

The small room adjoining the girls' workroom, marked "storage 
room," can be fitted up with drawers and shelves for sewing materials 
and also for kitchen utensils. 

The library room opens directly ofT the classroom, near the teacher's 
desk. Tliis library is designed to be 10 feet long and approximately 
S feet wide. Bookshelves should be built around the wall in those 
spaces not occupied by the windows and the door. These shelves 
should not be more than 9 inches deep, and hence there will be room 
for a small reading table and a few chairs. The walls above the 
bookshelves should be tinted the same color as in the classroom. 

The cloakrooms, opening left and right from the vestibule, have 
one door each and are designed to communicate only with the vesti- 
bule. Were it not for the fact that the blackboard space on the wall 
in the classroom opposite the windows would be greatly limited, a 
door should open into the classroom from each of these cloakrooms. 
This arrangement would give the teacher better control and would 
prevent some congestion in the cloakrooms, but unless the black- 
boards in the workrooms could be utilized for some of the regular 
class work this change would not be advisable. 

To prevent annoyance, aU doors opening into the classroom should 
swing out. Tliis applies to the doors of the workrooms, library, vesti- 
bule, and fuel room. 

The chimney passes up through the girls' workroom. This wiU 
permit the one chimney to serve both the jacketed stove or furnace 
and a range for the girls' workroom. 

The floors of all rooms of this building should be double, except 
the vestibule, and that should be of cement or terrazzo. The upper 
floors in the other rooms should be made of hard pine, selected maple, 
or oak boards. 

The wainscoting throughout the building should be stained a 
neutral brown, so as to reflect no high lights into the eyes of the pupils 
while they are at work. The roof should be of rather flat construc- 
tion, preferably hipped. 

The windows into the cloakrooms, as will be noticed, are set 6 feet 
above the floor, so that the walls beneath them can be used for clothing 
hooks. This provision will give plenty of light, and it also relieves 
the architectural features of the building to some extent. 

The model from which this drawing was made was designed by 
Mr. William B. Ittner, of St. Louis. The drawing does not show 



70 



RUEAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GEOTJNDS. 



the real beauty of the exterior. The model was not in condition for 
photographing, and this drawing had to be made instead. 

The dimensions of this building are 46 by 32 feet. In rural com- 
munities where there are opportunities for utihzing the school for 
general social purposes, it would furnish plenty of space. The girls' 
workroom, the boys' workroom, and the hbrary especially lend them- 
selves to uses of this kind. With a range in the building, light 
refreshments could be easily prepared, and this, as every one knows, 
would add greatly to the success of any social undertaking. If a 
teacher who understands how to organize a district school to meet 
the demands of the community were located in such a building as this, 
it is needless to say that she could at once interest the whole com- 
munity in the rural life problems undertaken in the workrooms as 
well as in the classroom. 




'«■•.♦. 



Fig. 5. — Sketch of one-teacher school designed by J. L. Sibley (See p. 107). 

Naturally, this building should be located on good soil, with suffi- 
cient ground about it for agriculture and gardening, as well as for 
playgrounds. 

Model No. 3.1 

Model No. 3 represents almost the minimum of rural school equip- 
ment. Separate entrances connected with cloakrooms are made for 
the boys and for the girls. From these cloakrooms doors lead into 
the classroom, which, as will be seen, is designed for a district with 
comparatively few children. 

The dimensions of the classroom are 18 by 24 feet. The architects 
have indicated the placing of 35 desks. This would give a little less 
than 13 square feet of floor surface to each pupil. This would not be 
sufficient, unless most of the children were of the primary grades. 
Such a building as this should be used for not more than 30 pupils. 

In the rear of the classroom provision has been made for a fuel 
room, and also for a furnace which would introduce the fresh air into 
the room at a height of about 8 feet above the floor. The chimney is 

' See plate 7. 



PLANS FOR RURAL SCHOOLHOUSES. 71 

placed at some distance from the furnace on the other side of the fuel 
room, and is designed to have a vent flue opening from the schoolroom 
near the floor line, in this way utihzing the heat from the furnace to 
create a circulation of air in the schoolroom. Possibly it would have 
been better if the chimney had been placed near the center of the 
partition, so that the smoke pipe leading from the furnace to the 
chimney would not be so long, and hence less dangerous, and also 
to prevent dead air space near the window side of the room. However, 
this suggestion is not of great importance, because there is less danger 
of dead air space near the windows than on the opposite side of the 
building. 

The storeroom off the fuel and furnace room is designed simply for 
brooms, brushes, and such material as a janitor would need. A 
separate entrance is marked for the janitor. This does not seem at 
all essential, but does make an easy method of introducing the fuel. 

The classroom is lighted abundantly from one side alone. The 
windows are placed, approximately, 4 feet above the floor and run 
up to the ceiling. It will be noticed that the ceiling of the cloak- 
rooms and the fuel room will not be so high as that of the classroom 
on account of the method of roofing. This will be a definite saving 
and will introduce no serious difficulty. 

Two small windows, one in the rear and one in the front of the 
classroom on the right of the pupils' desks, may be included for the 
purpose of ventilation during warm weather. If these windows are 
inserted, they should be placed above the blackboards and so arranged 
that they may be opened easily from the floor. They are not designed 
for light, but are "breeze windows." These will relieve the rather 
bare side of the building, and give a better general effect architec- 
turally. 

The rather elaborate steps and overhanging roof give a quaint 
effect to the building, and would not be at all difficult or expensive 
to construct. 

The light in the cloakrooms is preserved by cutting away the broad 
eaves immediately over the windows in front of the building. 

As noted above, this building is planned for almost the minimum 
activities of a rural school, and may be of service in those communi- 
ties which can not undertake to build a more elaborate structure, 
designed for a larger educational program. 

The chalet effect in this building would be especially pleasing on a 
bench level of a hillside, with the windows facing up or down the val- 
ley. Such a position should be chosen only when there is a sufficient 
amount of level ground to afford playgrounds and such gardening as 
a school of this size would undertake. The building should face 
south, preferably, so as to get the west light in the classroom and the 
south light in the cloakrooms. If it faced north, the classroom would 



72 RIJEAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GROUNDS. 

get east light, which is frequently better than west light, but the 
cloakrooms would not get as much sunshine. 

This building especially lends itself to the clapboard form of con- 
struction; that is to say, the weatherboarding could be unplaned 
lumber fastened to an inner sheathing and then stained some color 
that would blend with the trunks of the forest trees. The long, flat 
roof and extended eaves give it beautiful lines, and if the grounds 
were treated to suit the building it would make a most attractive 
small rural schoolhouse. This building should not be treated in any 
other way than in wood; it would not suit brick, stone, or cement. 

The cost of such a building ought to be very low, for it would 
require very little lumber, and the plan is so simple that any builder 
could easily construct it from the data given in the floor plan and the 
photograph. These are all drawn to scale, and although they are 
much reduced in the photograph all the working drawings could be 
made up from the data here given. 

In the classroom in this building the blackboards are on three sides 
of the room, none at all being on the window side. The main black- 
board is on the wall directly opposite the windows. Since this build- 
ing is especially designed for primary pupils, the blackboards should 
not be set above 28 inches in height, except at the teacher's end of 
the room. The width of the board should not exceed 3^ feet. 

Model No. 4. 

Drawings showing the basement and floor plans of model 4 are 
here inserted and described. This model was designed for a small 
village school or a consolidated rural school in which two teachers 
would be sufficient. The basement plan includes toilets and baths 
for both girls and boys, with dressing rooms attached, and a fuel and 
furnace room. 

In order to economize space and lessen expense, entrances to the 
basement rooms are made at each end from the outside of the build- 
ing. Some simple harmonizing covering should be devised for the 
stairways leading down into the basement, and walks should be con- 
structed along the whole front of the building and on the two ends 
leading to the basement steps. 

The entrance to the furnace room could be made through the boys' 
bathroom or a separate door for it could be opened on the outside. 
It would be simpler and cheaper to open this door through the boys' 
room, as indicated. 

The drawing for the basement shows half of the space underneath 
the building excavated. If funds permit and the location be suit- 
able, the whole area underneath the building could be excavated, 
and, in addition to the toilets and baths and furnace room, work- 
rooms for boys and girls could be easily constructed. This, of course, 



PLANS FOR RURAL SCH00LH0U3ES. 



73 




40742°— Bull. 12 



74 



BUBAL SOHOOLHOUSES AND GEOUNDS. 




PLANS FOR RURAL SCHOOLHOUSES. 75 

would necessitate lifting the building somewlmt higher above the 
surface of the ground in order that the excavation would not be too 
deep to interfere with sufficient light and proper ventilation in these 
worla-ooms. However, the building should not be lifted much higher 
above the surface of the ground than shown. Light could be ar- 
ranged for two sides in each of these rooms. The stairways to the 
basement could lead into the worlvrooms rather than into the toilet 
rooms, and connecting doors from the workrooms to the toilet rooms 
could be easily provided. 

The dramng shows a shower bath and two dressing rooms for the 
boys, and the same conveniences for the girls. The furnace room is 
shown sufficiently large for the storage of fuel. 

The chimney is set to pass up through the center of the building, 
through the partition between the two classrooms. If a workroom 
for the girls is devised in the basement, an additional flue in this 
chimney should be constructed to accommodate a range. 

The basement plan as shown makes provision for the introduction 
of ample light and sunshine. A basement of this sort, with the sani- 
tary appliances indicated, could not be equipped unless running 
water and either a sewer outlet or an ample septic tank are available 
in connection with the toilets and baths. 

The floor of the basement rooms should be carefully cemented, and 
the walls plastered with hard cement plaster; and some form of water- 
proof paint should be used tliroughout the rooms. 

The ceiling of the furnace room should be carefully constructed, so 
as to avoid the possibilities of fire from the furnace. If need be, the 
furnace could be set in a pit a foot lower than the floor of the base- 
ment; but, with such an arrangement, especial care should be taken 
to prevent seepage of any water into the pit. 

The drawing also shows that the dressing room, the stalls for the 
seats, and the urinals all face toward the windows. This will insure 
better sanitary conditions and will also make it much easier for the 
teachers to inspect the condition of these rooms. 

A fresh-air inlet for tlie furnace should be built from the window 
side and the duct be so placed that it will not be in the way of the 
fuel. The location of this duct will depend somewhat on local con- 
ditions; it is therefore not shown in the drawing. 

The floor plan (fig. 6) of this building shows two entrance 
porches, a cloakroom for each classroom, a library connecting with 
each classroom, and a teachers' room off the library. 

The dimensions of the classrooms are 22 by 30 feet, with light entirely 
from one side. It seems unnecessary to introduce breeze windows 
into either of these classrooms, because the outer door in each room 



76 RUEAL SOHOOLHOUSES AND QEOUNDS. 

opens on a covered porch, and, if a breeze is needed, this door can be 
left open. Additional help in the way of a breeze could also be 
obtained through the library by opening the doors from the class- 
rooms into the library and throwing open the windows of the library. 

The windows in each classroom are grouped to the left and well to 
the rear of the pupils when seated at their desks, thus insuring plenty 
of light. The windows are designed to be 3 feet wide and 8 feet high 
and to be set 4 feet above the floor. The mullions between the 
windows are to be not greater than 12 or 14 inches. This arrange- 
ment of the windows would give a glass surface a little greater than 
one-fifth of the floor surface and, with this size of classroom, would 
insure abundance of light under any ordinary conditions of proper 
orientation. Sufficient blackboard room is furnished by using the 
rear and front walls of each classroom and those parts of the inner 
walls not broken by doors. No blackboards should be placed on 
the window side. 

The height of the classroom should not be greater than 12^ feet 
from finished floor to the finished ceiling, as indicated in the previous 
plans. The finishing and tinting of these rooms should follow the 
general plan indicated in connection with the other models. 

If it seemed better to dispense with the teachers' room and instead 
supply a wardrobe for each teacher, the library room could be 
enlarged to advantage by including the space marked off as a teachers' 
room. This would give a library room 24 feet long and 8 feet wide, 
which could be made the most attractive and inspiring place in the 
building. 

Doors are indicated in the cloakrooms opening out on the porch, 
so that when children come to school they may hang up their wraps 
before coming into the classroom. However, these doors could be 
dispensed with, and the inner door indicated would suffice. This, 
of course, would make more congestion in the cloakrooms, but it 
would give the teacher better control, and thus prevent pilfering and 
carelessness in the cloakroom. 

Warm-air ducts are shown in the corner of the library room and 
the teachers' room. These come from the furnace below and should 
open into the classroom approximately 8 feet above the floor. The 
size of these ducts will depend somewhat on the location of the fur- 
nace and their complete insulation from the cold air underneath the 
building. There ought to be also a warm-air duct opening into the 
library. The location of this is not indicated, but can be easily sup- 
plied in connection with the duct already indicated in the library. 
In rigorous climates foot warmers should be introduced along the 
front of a seat situated near the front of each room. 



PLANS FOR RURAL S0H00LH0U8ES. 77 

The windows opening into the cloakrooms, library, and teachers' 
room should all be of the same dimensions as those in the classroom 
and should be located in the same manner. 

The porches should have cement floors and, instead of a boxed 
entrance as indicated in the photograph of the model (plate 9), 
steps could be arranged partly inside and partly outside the full 
length of the front side of the porch. The open end of the porch 
should be shielded by a banister or a solid wall 3 or 4 feet high. 

The drawing suggests that a water cooler could be located in the 
inner corners of the porch. This position also would furnish excel- 
lent opportunity for a drinking fountain and would be safe except in 
extreme cold weather, when the water could be turned off and some 
temporary arrangement made for supplying proper drinking facilities. 
Local conditions and climate will have so much to do with these 
arrangements that only suggestions are possible. 

The photographs of the views of model 4 show how the building 
would appear from the outside. The only difference between the 
photographs and the description given is with reference to the 
entrance steps to the porch. While the illustration hardly indicates 
it, this is a beautiful, simple model for a two-teacher country school- 
house. These models, used as they have been in many different 
parts of the country, were not in good condition for photographing, 
so that they do not appear to the best advantage in the illustrations. 

The roof has wide eaves and is comparatively flat. No attempt 
at decoration is manifested aside from pleasing proportions. 

This building could be treated either in wood, cement, or brick in 
an effective way. If constructed of wood, it should not be painted 
white, but in a color to harmonize with its environment. 

If eaves troughs are used on this building, the leaders should be 
placed in the rear so as not to harm the effect of the lines of the front. 
If a tile drain were placed about the house, as indicated in previous 
discussions, and the steps to the basement were properly and effec- 
tively guarded from beating rains, no eaves troughs would be neces- 
sary, for the roof is wide and low and the water could be carried off 
by the drain as fast as shed from the roof. 

If a building following this model were constructed on a good 
location, fronting east or west, and the garden treated to harmonize, 
there is no doubt that a very beautiful and attractive rural school- 
house would result. 

The writer is indebted to Mr. William B. Ittner, of St. Louis, for 
constructing this model on a floor plan which was suggested to him. 

This plan is commended to those village and country school officers 
who desire to get a good building with minimum cost. Those who 
undertake to copy it ought to try to get the same effect in the propor- 
tions as here shown. 



78 



RURAL SOHOOLHOUSES AND GROUNDS. 



Model No. 6. 

Model 5 represents a three-teacher school building, having a library 
and a girls' workroom on the main floor, and a basement, including 
baths and toilets for both boys and girls, a worla*oom for the boys, 
and provision for two small furnaces and a coal bin connected 
therewith. 

Entrance to the basement is gained from either end of the building 
through a vestibule. The girls' toilet and batliroom is not accessible 
from any other part of the basement. The entrance to the boys' 
workroom is near the foot of the steps leading to the basement, and 
the boys' toilet is entered from an adjoining door. Entrance to the 
fiu'nace room and coal bin is down the stairs used by the boys. 




Fig. 8.— Rear elevation, rural school designed by J. L. Sibley (see p. 107). 

A three-teacher schoolhouse is one of the most difficult to plan. 
In reality this building is what might be termed a "four-roomed" 
building; but the space for one classroom and its necessary cloak- 
room has been utilized for the library and the girls' workroom. A 
budding of this type would be well adapted for a centralized or con- 
solidated school in a sparsely settled district. 

Two furnaces are shown. ^ One large furnace would be ample, and 
it could be situated nearer the center of the bidlding, relieving the 
boys' workroom, and making it easy to conduct the heat from the 
furnace to the various rooms in the building. If this change from 
two furnaces to one is made, as indicated, special care will have to be 
taken to provide an ample inlet for the fresh air, and this woidd 
probably be done better by constructing a narrow passageway ending 
near the furnace in a galvanized duct. This would prevent a good 
deal of friction and insure a better supply of fresh air. 

Dressing rooms for the boys could be easily constructed along the 
inner wall next the workroom. 

The illustration shows three showers near the outer end of the girls' 
toilet room and two near the entrance.^ It seems that three showers 

1 See plate SB. 



PLANS FOR RURAL SCHOOLHOUSES. 79 

would be ample, and that the two sfjuarcs marked "showers" near 
the steps could be utilized for dressmg rooms. 

Ample lighting for the basement rooms is indicated, especially if 
the small furnace in the boys' workroom is removed and a larger 
furnace put nearer the center. 

If this building is located on a slight elevation, in good soil, the 
basement can be excavated to the depth of 4 J feet, and the distance 
from fuiished floor to the ceiling of the basement would be 9 feet, 
thus giving windows 4 feet in height on those sides of the basement 
requiring the greatest amount of light. 

The plan has been designed for a consolidated rural school where 
running water is available, where good drainage can be obtained, 
and where a septic-tank disposal can be introduced. 

Plate 8A was made by removing the roof of the model, raising 
the model on edge, and photographing it down through the interior. 

It will be necessary to face this building north or south in order to 
insure the proper lighting for the rooms above ground as well as for 
those in the basement. 

The classrooms are 30 by 24 feet, and this photograph of the 
interior shows provision for 48 desks in each room. This is too great 
a number; instead of 6 rows, only 5 should be provided. This will 
give better space for aisles and will not overcrowd the room. In the 
primary grades, however, if conditions demand 6 rows, they may be 
introduced, because desks for primary pupils are not so large as those 
for the upper grades. 

Each classroom is lighted entirely from one side, and the desks are 
so arranged that the pupils get the light from the left side. The 
windows are placed to the rear and left of the pupils when seated at 
their desks, each room being provided with 5 windows, 3 feet wide, 
8 feet high, and set 4 feet above the floor. 

The distance from finished floor to the finished ceiling in all of the 
rooms on the main floor is 12^ feet. 

In addition to the three classrooms, a girls' workroom and a library 
are provided on the main floor. The girls' workroom is lighted from 
two sides; the library gets its light from one side only. It seemed 
better to give the girls' workroom the advantage of the light and 
ventilation, because such work as they engage in will necessitate in 
part, at least, better light than would ordinarily be needed in those 
parts of the library some distance from the windows. The space 
near the windows in the library can be utilized for reading tables, 
and the space nearer the halls can be left free for bookstacks and 
magazine tables. 

It will be noticed that the chimney is so placed as to come up 
through one wall of the corridor and a cross wall between two class- 



80 KUKAL SCHOOLHOUSES AISTD GROUNDS. 

rooms. This will necessitate a very little araount of projection 
either into the corridor or into the classrooms. 

Provision is made for inlets for the warm air, if a hot-air fm-nace 
is used, and for exits on the same side for each room. The arrange- 
ment of these ducts and exits should be studied very carefully, so that 
each room could ordinarily be kept at the same temperature. 

By reason of the foreshortening in photographing the interior of 
the model, the walls seem to be spread across the center and make 
the floor look a little irregular; but this photograph has been intro- 
duced in preference to line drawings, for it shows a great many moje 
features than an ordinary drawing could show. 

A cloakroom, opening into the classroom only, is shown at one end 
of each classroom. These are lighted from the outside and are ample 
for all of the children in each room. Provision for two doors, opening 
into the corridor, was jnade for each classroom. If it should seem 
more advisable to introduce but one door from the classroom into the 
corridor, this change can be made without any diflB.culty. 

From the vestibule a series of steps leads up to the corridor and 
another series down to the basement. Double doors are indicated in 
the model at the head of the steps leading up into the corridor. This 
isolates the corridor and the rooms opening into it from any possible 
contaniination of the air from the basement. These doors at the 
end of the corridor should be fitted with large panes of glass, so as not 
to obstruct the light. Outside doors are shown at each entrance, 
and these could be left open during the school session, thus preventing 
bad air from getting into the corridor or classrooms from the base- 
ment. These outside doors show large transoms or windows above. 
It will not be necessary to arrange these windows as transoms ; they 
are needed simply for the pm-pose of throwing plenty of light across 
the vestibule into the corridor. 

The photograph (PI. 5C) showing the front of the model will make 
the entrance doors clearer, and will also show the method of light- 
ing the classrooms and the front part of the basement. The decora- 
tions in the upper parts of the windows opening into the classrooms 
are not essential to the beauty of the buildmg. They represent 
little artistic touches which may be introduced if desire prompts. 
Unfortunately, the pillar on the right of the entrance as shown in the 
cut of the front of the model was out of plumb, and makes the model 
appear awkward. Attention should be called to the low, projecting 
roof, and especially to the extension of the roof over each entrance 
to the building. 

The question might arise regarding the necessity of two entrances, 
one marked for the boys and the other for the girls. There is no need 
of limiting the boys to entrance at one point and the girls to another. 
However, there should be a door in the rear leading out toward the 



i'lJi.JSia FOK KUiiAL BOHOOLHOUSES. 81 

playground, and since the basement on the gkls' side is carefully pro- 
tected, there is no reason why this door could not be used by both 
boys and girls, and the same is true of the front entrance. 

If this building were located on a lot fronting east or west and if 
there were sufficient space to remove the building far enough from the 
roadway to avoid dust and disturbances, it would bo entirely justifi- 
able to face the broad side of the building toward the roadway, thus 
making the two entrances equidistant from the gateway leading from 
the street or roadway. In fact, this building is beautiful from any 
point of view and easily lends itself to proper orientation. 

The height of the classrooms from finished floor to ceiling should 
not be over 12^ feet, and the drawing shows the corridor 12 feet wide. 

The cloakrooms are drawn 6 feet wide. The location of the doors 
into the cloakrooms can be seen by studying the cut showing the 
interior. 

The model was designed by Cooper & Bailey, of Boston. The 
buUding can be constructed of any ordinary material, but is especially 
adapted to concrete or stucco. The model is painted white, and 
hence is shown in the photograph in this color. It would ordinarily 
blend better with the environment if it were a dull gray or, if con- 
structed of wood, a rich brown. The color of the roof should be made 
to harmonize with the construction. A building following this plan 
could be constructed at a reasonable cost, for it demands no super- 
abundance of material and is m every way simple in construction. 

Model No. 6. 

The floor plans and views of the model here introduced show an 
unusual type. The model represents a budding having four class- 
rooms, with a cloakroom attached to each; two separate excavations 
for basement, in which are rooms for toilets, baths, furnaces, and fuel; 
connecting pergolas; and an open-air theater or assembly room. 

The accompanying drawing (fig. 10) of the basement plan shows 
that only half of the space covered by the two parts of the building 
is excavated and that the entrances to the basements open to the rear 
and outside of the building. Toilets are located in each case where 
they wiH be well hglited, and sliower baths and dressing rooms are 
indicated in each side. The basement rooms are to be lighted from 
one side and tlie outer end. A chimney from each basement extends 
up through the connecting walls between the classrooms and emerges 
at the comb of the roof. The furnaces can be so placed as to make it 
easy to secure fresh air, and the ducts leading to the rooms above can 
be easily constructed. If instead of hot-air furnaces, hot water or low- 
pressure steam seems preferable, one boiler would be sufficient and 
the heat could be conveyed in carefully protected pipes underground 



82 



RURAL SOHOOLHOUSES AND GROUNDS. 



from one building across the court to the other. This basement plan 
could be used only in communities furnished with running water and 
sewer connection or septic-tank disposal. 

The floor plan represents four classrooms and a cloakroom at the 
outer end of each. These classrooms are 32 feet long and 24 feet 




■m 



ip- W tH^ 

|1 C»-aU^^fer-djo|^ I, 



ClassIIoo/a 



C\_AS5'R.OOA\ 



Cloqk.'^oora 

II II 



-^ -it- -j^-- jj.-- M^--- 

■ ----* =■ =-ilk----^M= =dt^ ^ J 

II 

"I* 

<: ll 

^ I' 

It 

-If* 



* 



^^M^ 



Octftr 
Court 



TI T 

Fig. 9.— Main floor plan, Model 6. 




wide. The cloakrooms are 6 feet wide and extend the entire width 
of each classroom. This makes it possible to introduce windows in 
the ends of the building for lighting the cloakrooms, thus relieving 
the architectural features of the building. 

The unusual and interesting part of this building Hes in the fact 
that no halls have been provided; their place is taken bj pergolas, 



PLANS FOR RUKAf, SCHOOLHOUSES. 



83 



connecting tlio two buildings and opening into tlio court. There is 
also shown a series of semicircular amphitheater seats for open-air 
classes and assemblies. This model was designed for the warmer 
parts of our country, and especially for those sections of the South 
and Southwest where tJio climate will permit much outdoor work. 
The building can.be used not only for school work, but for social and 
educational purposes by the whole community. 





Fig. 10. — Basement plan, Model 6. 

The building may face either north or south. In the warmer parts 
of the country it would be preferable for it to face north, so that an 
audience occupying the amphitheater seats in the rear would not 
have to face the sunsliine. In the cold or windy parts of the country 
a good deal of protection could be secured if the building faced south. 
In no case should the building face east or west, because, if so placed, 
the classrooms could not be properly lighted. 

The pergolas should be covered with vines, preferably grapevines 
or some hardy perennial, so that in time the whole structure would 



84 BUBAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GBOUNDS. 

not seem to be composed of two parts, but would be blended into a 
unit. 

Two doors are shown in each classroom, one in the front and one 
in the rear end of each room. These open directly out beneath the 
pergolas and into the court. The width of the court, as shown in 
the drawing, is 30 feet. This will not separate the two parts of the 
building too far, and at the same time it will give sufficient room for 
the open-air theater and the court to accommodate not only the 
members but the patrons and friends of the school. 

In order to get a Httle more clearly before the reader the idea in 
mind in drawing these plans, the following uses of this open-air 
theater are suggested : In the first place, aU the children in the school 
could be gathered from their classrooms to these seats in a minute or 
two, because the children of each room could march separately and 
directly to the theater. Hence, in good weather, the morning's 
exercises for the whole school should be conducted here. Chorus 
work throughout the day, or regular classes from any of the rooms 
where blackboards are not necessary, could be conducted here. 
Entertainments of aU kinds, weather permitting, could be given 
without any danger of disturbing the school building, and, above all, 
in the open air. The pergolas offer an excellent opportunity for 
simple decoration for evening entertainments; two or three dozen 
lighted Japanese lanterns hung from the beams of the pergolas would 
make a beautiful picture. The rear court could be used as a stage, 
and its convenience to cloakrooms and classrooms would easily sug- 
gest how these might be used as dressing rooms whence the actors 
could emerge mthout the need of curtains. Flowers, plants, and 
shrubs in this rear court could be arranged with the idea that the 
space is to be utilized for a speaker's platform, for a theater stage, or 
for the conductor of a chorus. 

Neighborhood clubs, farmers' institutes, and all the social and edu- 
cational gatherings of the neighborhood might utilize this open-air 
theater. 

It will be evident to anyone considering the proper site for such 
a building that the amphitheater seats could be more easily and 
artistically placed if the building were situated with these seats rest- 
ing against a hillside or a convenient mound about which were vines 
and shrubs and trees. 

The upper tiers of seats in this amphitheater should be about 16 
inches high, and the lower tiers should be adapted to the smaller 
children and be about 12 or 14 inches high. The width of the seat 
should be great enough to provide space just behind the back rest 
for the feet of those sitting immediately behind, and thus keep them 
from interfering with the backs of those sitting one step lower. 



PLANS FOR RURAL SCHOOLHOUSES. 86 

No one who has not felt the delight of such an auditorium as this 
can be expected to appreciate fully the pleasures and comforts it 
brings. In this au-ditorium questions of ventilation do not enter, 
and it would certainly emphasize in a striking way to all the people 
who might frequent it that there is far less danger of taldng cold in 
the open air, when properly clothed, than in ill-ventilated rooms. 
Such an open-air "room" as this would be the most useful, the most 
delightful, and most educational place about the whole building. 

The cross pergolas connecting the centers of the two buildings 
should be 12 feet wide at least, and a bubbling fountain, should be 
erected at their center. The waste from this could be piped directly 
to a waste-water exit in one of the basements. A fountain located 
at this point would be easily accessible to all of the children and to 
anyone else attending exercises in the theater. If it should seem 
necessary to have more than one fountain, they could be arranged 
for at the same point. 

The classrooms receive light from one side only, to the left of the 
children when seated at their desks.. Each window is 3 feet wide, 
8 feet high, and is set 4 feet above the floor. Instead of the ordinary 
sHding sash, casement windows should be supplied to this building, 
which would open directly out and be so hinged and guarded that 
they could be held at any point without danger of being broken by 
the wind. Plate 26B is inserted to show this window arrange- 
ment in one of the semiopen-air rooms of a Louisville school build- 
ing. This type of window sash calls for special care in construction 
and arrangement, but can be imitated with success in a rural school. 

This building would easily accommodate 140 to 160 pupils of the 
elementary grades and 100 of high-school gi-ade. 

Several serious omissions in rooms needed in such a building as 
this have doubtless occurred to the reader; no library, no worlo-ooms, 
and no offices for the teachers have been planned. They have been 
purposely left out of this plan; not that they are not absolutely essen- 
tial, but that they could be provided in separate buildings. This form 
of building permits of front extension without any serious disturbance 
to its unity. In drawing these plans without these several rooms 
the thing in mind has been the construction of four classrooms, with 
the accessories mentioned, at the very lowest possible cost. By re- 
ferring to the photographs representing the model it will be seen 
that the hipped roofs of each half of the building are low, with wide 
eaves, and hence that all the walls are of the same height. If the 
building were constructed of wood, each piece of studding would be 
of the same length, provided the foundations were level. Altogether 
the construction is reduced to its simplest elements, especially as the 
expense of halls is entirely eliminated. 



86 BUBAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GROUNDS. 

These plans are offered, not as perfect and complete models, but 
as hints toward greater utihzation of the open air for classes, assem- 
blies, and general social work. 

The building should be located on ample ground, and the trees, 
shrubs, and gardening effects should be made to harmonize with the 
atmosphere of freedom and space suggested by the courts and the 
open-air theater. 

Thanks are due Mr. Wilham B. Ittner, of St. Louis, for the con- 
struction of the model on floor plans furnished him. The photo- 
graphs do not give an adequate idea of the beauty of the model. 

Plate 11 A represents a one- teacher rural school in York County, S. C. 
The floor plan (fig. 11) shows a classroom 24 by 32 feet, a cloak- 
room 16 by 6 feet, a teacher's room 8 by 6 feet, and a workroom 12 
by 24 feet. The open porch is plainly shown in the view. There 
are three outside doors, two leading into the classroom and one into 
the cloakroom. The windows of the classroom are well grouped on 
the left side of the pupils, and two windows open in the rear. The 
locations of the windows in the workroom and the teacher's room 
are shown in the floor plan. 

This building, though it is far above the average, could be im- 
proved in the following ways : 

A basement could easily be constructed beneath it. An examina- 
tion of the photograph shows that the building is resting upon narrow 
brick piers. 

A building like this 50 feet in length, if placed on high ground, or, 
preferably, ground sloping to the rear, would offer easy opportunity 
for installing in the basement a furnace which would heat the class- 
room, the worla*oom, and the teacher's room. The basement would 
offer abundant space for the installation of toilets and baths and a 
workroom for the boys, the workroom on the main floor being re- 
served for the girls. With this change there would be no reason for 
the rear door opening from the classroom; hence the space devoted 
to the cloakroom and the teacher's room could be lengthened 2 feet, 
the cloakroom shortened shghtly, and the teacher's room could then 
be transformed into a library and teacher's room with more satisfac- 
tory dimensions. 

The cloakroom would be safer and better Hghted if a large window 
took the place of the door. Pupils would then have to enter the 
cloakroom from the classroom, thus giving the teacher complete con- 
trol and preventing many annoyances. 

The following drawing (fig. 12) represents a rearranged floor plan 
for this building. No change would be necessary except to introduce 
a window in the cloakroom instead of a door, to close the rear door 
from the classroom, and to widen the window in the library to 4 feet. 



PLANS FOR RURAL SCHOOLHOUSES. 



87 




Y«z-ni- windlovYy 8a!oovc/{. 

FiQ. 11 — Floor plan, one-teacher rural school, York County, 8. C. 



88 



EUEAL SOHOOLHOUSES AND GROUNDS. 




Fig. 12.— Rearranged floor plan of building shown in fig. 11. 



PLANS FOii KURAL SCHOOLHOUSES. 89 

Instead of the two windows in the rear bomg at the same height 
above the floor as those on the left of the pupils, they should be set at 
least 6 foot above the floor, so that the blackboard could extend 
across the rear end. These windows could then be used only for 
"brooze" in hot weather. 

The original drawing shows a platform for the teacher set near the 
front door. The drawings for the floor plan show no platform, and 
the desk of the teacher is moved to the opposite side of the room. 
This is a better position, because the children's eyes are shielded from 
looking toward the windows when attending to the teacher, and the 
teacher's desk is out of the way of the children going to and from the 
cloakroom before and after school; further, it would give the teacher 
better position for managing the classes and better supervision over 
workroom, library, and cloakroom. 

Some objection might be offered to the length of this building in 
comparison with its width, and were it not for the simple but rather 
graceful porch, this objection would carry more weight. As it is, the 
building does not look out of proportion and shows good lines. 

Figure 13 and Plate 40 A represent the floor plans and an outside 
view of a one-teacher rural school designed by J. H. Felt & Co., 
architects, Kansas City, Mo.^ These plans anticipate either the con- 
struction of a new buildiag or the remodeling of an old building. For 
example, if an old building in the form of a classroom without any of 
the conveniences attached were enlarged by adding the hall with its 
attached cloak racks, the workroom, the niche for the heater, and the 
various other elements in the front of the building, by rearranging the 
windows, and changing the doors, it would be an easy matter to make 
over an insanitary and inconvenient one-room building into this 
hygienic and modern structure. 

There are certain features of tliis buUding worthy of attention : The 
niche in which the heater is placed could be made fireproof at little 
expense. The fuel need not be carried into the house. The exits for 
the foul air are brought into contact with the chinmey, and in this 
way the movement of the air is hastened. The workroom is shown 
with folding doors between it and the main schoolroom. These doors 
may be loft open, or they may be closed in case the work mthin this 
room disturbs the pupils in the classroom, A blackboard may be 
placed under the high windows in the rear, as well as on the wall in the 
front of the schoolroom. Further, if the windows on the right side of 
the workroom were placed higher, say 7 feet above the floor, a black- 
board could be introduced across the entire end of this room, which 
would seem desirable. If the windows on the left of the classroom 
were all moved back nearer the left rear corner, as the children sit at 

> Thanks are due the architects for the use of this revised floor plan and the photograph of the building. 
40742°— Bull. 12—14 7 



90 



RUEAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GEOUNDS. 



their desks, better light would be obtained, because less of it would 
be in the children's eyes. 

This plan could be improved somewhat by slight reconstruction, 
the result of which should be a building with a single workroom 
for all, one cloakroom, a teacher's room, a library, and a classroom. 



jLaro E3iid&ta^bu57 




Fig. 13.— Floor plan of model one-room school, showing seat room. J. H. Felt & Co., Kansas City, 

Mo., architects. 

If a basement could be constructed under this building, it could be 
used for the furnace and such other conveniences as community con- 
ditions would warrant. Without a basement a jacketed stove could 
be set as indicated. A separate flue should be constructed in the 
workroom to furnish opportunity to use a small range for domestic 



PLANS FOR RURAL SCHOOLHOUSES. 



91 



science work. If it seemed best to separate the workroom into two 
parts, a partition could be erected between the door and the flue in 
the workroom. 




Fig. 14.— Floor plan of a typical old school building (see also p. 115). 

Figures 15 and 16 show a building that is not a one-room building, 
but a one-teacher building.^ It is really a five-room building. There 

' Drawn by Hobart & Cheney, architects, San Francisco. 



92 RUEAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GEOUNDS. 

is a splendid workroom, beautifully lighted, with, provision for a 
smaU range for work in cookery. This workroom is 7 feet wide and 
approximately 21 feet long and will accommodate all the older boys 
and girls of the ordinary rural school. The uses to which this room 
can be put will be limited largely by the abUity and foresight of the 




fRONT ELEVATIOM 




J?iG. 15.— Front and side elevation, one-room school, Hobart & Cheney, Architects, San Francisco, CaL 

teacher in charge. Manual training in wood work, all sorts of draw 
ing work; model making for farm barns, farmhouses, and outbuild- 
ings; studying germination of seeds and growth of plants; cooking; 
designing; cutting; sewing; and all other kinds of work relating to 
home life and school life may be done in this workroom if the teacher 
has vision and power to outline and direct the work. 



PLANS FOR RUEAL SCHOOLHOUSES. 



93 



The library room should have more light than is here shown. There 
should bo two windows instead of ono. These placed (as indicated 
for the one shown) 6 foot above the floor will permit bookcases beneath 
and give good light and sunshine. 

The two cloakrooms are well situated, and although some objec- 
tion might be raised to the fact that the teacher's blackboard has 




Fig. 16.— Floor plan of one-room school, Hobart & Cheney, Architects, San Francisco, Cal. 

been shortened by the doors into these rooms, it is still long enough, 
especially if it is made 4 feet wide, a3 it should bo. 

The windows of the classroom are grouped on the left. Two high 
windows in the rear (8 feet abore the floor) and those in workroom 
and library may be used to secure a breeze through the room in hot 
weather. The cloakrooms can be ventilated through their own 
windows . 



94 RUKAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GEOUNDS. 

If a basement were properly constructed under this building and 
running water, with the necessary sewage disposal, were available, 
sanitary toilets and baths could be installed; a furnace also could be 
used instead of the jacketed stove suggested in this plan. If a fur- 
nace is installed, inlets should be set to heat the classroom, the work- 
room, and the library, which should open from the inner walls about 
8 feet above the floor, and the outlets should be near-by at the floor 
line. The furnace would enable the small room shown in the draw- 
ing as fuel room to be thrown into the workroom; or better still, the 
partition and chinmey could be moved farther to the front, and two 
workrooms, one for the boys and one for the girls, be made. 

By studying these drawings it will be seen that the plans contemplate 
a construction with cement plaster either of fireproof tile or of framed 
and galvanized steel lath and a tile roof. But the form of this build- 
ing lends itself to almost any kind of durable material. 

The building will accommodate 35 to 40 pupils without crowding. 

Should the hinged form of windows shown not be available in thelocal 
markets, the ordinary sliding sash can be used. The windows should 
be set 4 feet above the floor. When the upper parts of the windows 
are stationary, as here shown, ventilation is not so easily effected; 
when arranged as transoms, they are out of reach and generally use- 
less. The hinged form of windows here called for will make it pos- 
sible to turn this classroom into an open-air room by merely swinging 
all of the windows out. In larger buildings, where forced ventilation 
is used, the horizontal division of windows is less objectionable. 

This plan can be easily adapted so as to make a splendid one-teacher 
rural school. 

Plates 21, 22, 23 are reproductions of photographs of the Cross- 
roads School in Macon County, III. The bureau is under obhgation 
to State Supt. Francis G. Blair and the State printer of Illinois for 
the use of the photographs from which these cuts were made. 

The building was designed by Mr. V. C. Zimmerman, of Chicago. 
It represents an unusually good type of country school and is worthy 
of careful study by school officers who can afford to construct a 
building of this size and equip it as indicated. Some features of 
this school deserve especial attention. 

In the first place, from plate 21 and other views one can see that 
the windows are closely grouped and occupy almost the entire east 
side of the building. By reference to plate 23B it wiU be seen that 
the windows do not extend to the ceifing by about 2 feet. If the 
front one of these seven windows had been eliminated and the rest 
of the windows had been set higher from the floor, say 4 feet, and 
had extended within at least 1 foot of the ceifing, better fighting 
conditions would have prevailed, for the fight then would have 
carried across the room better and have been better adjusted to 



PLANS FOR RURAL SCHOOLHOUSES. 95 

the eyes of the pupils when seated at their desks If the windows 
had been set as thus suggested, ample glass surface would have been 
afforded, yet the distiiibance due to the hght fi'om the front window 
shining directly into the eyes of some of the children as they attend 
to the teacher would have been largely ehminatcd. On the whole 
the lighting of tliis building is unusually good, but it would have 
been more satisfactory if the wiridows had been arranged as sug- 
gested. The naiTow mulHons between the windows arc very com- 
mendable and the whole appearance of the elevation is pleasing. 

Plato 22B, representing the interior, shows a good an'angement 
of the desks with one row close to the windows. This gives ample 
aisle space and serves to introduce without appreciable crowding 
six rows of desks. But if the lower part of the windows had been 
placed higher above the floor, there would have been less exposure 
to the cold on the part of the children who sit on the benches close 
to the windows. 

Plate 23B shows small rear windows which can be used for ven- 
tilation in hot weather. They can be easily covered with a shade 
duj-iiig the cold wdnter months when there will be no need for open- 
ing them. It is rather unfortunate that no blackboard appears 
on the side opposite the windows and that the blackboards are 
placed only in the rear and in the fi-ont. There are two spaces on 
the west side wall that could have been used very satisfactorily for 
board work by the pupils and that would have made it easier for all 
to see. However, these are minor points of no great significance. 
It is evident the blackboards are made of slate and well set. It 
may be suggested that the teacher's desk should be placed on the 
west side of the room instead of on the east, as indicated in figure 
17. This would prevent those children sitting in the northwest part 
of the room from having to look toward the windows when attending 
to the teacher while seated at her desk. 

It will be observed that transoms are placed above all the doors. 
Elsewhere it has been said that transoms in schoolhouses of this type, 
and for that matter in practically aU types, are a delusion and a 
snare. They are rarely used, nearly always dirty, and generally out 
of order. In one of these photographs, however, it appears that two 
of the transoms are open, and the teacher in this school may be able 
to use them to some advantage. 

The warm-air registers in the j3.oor warm the pupils' feet and dry 
their clothes, but they also introduce a great deal of dirt and dust 
which falls into them, and after drying rises in the room to settle 
on fm-niture and on aU ledges. It would have been better if these 
registers had been placed in the wall 8 feet above the floor, and if 
some special provision had been made in a convenient and out of 



96 



RUKAL SOHOOLHOUSBS AND GEOUNDS. 



the way place in the room for a fixed bench with a register opening 
in front for the purpose of wanning the children's feet and drying 
their clothes. 

The architect has introduced the usual tower. The building, 
however, would have been niore beautiful if this tower had been 
left off, the roof would have been more secure from rain, and con- 
siderable expense would have been saved. Evidently this tower 
was buUt chiefly to accommodate the flagpole. It is better in aU 
places where there is sufficient room, as there is at this building, to 
put a flagpole in the gTound, and thereby make the flag much more 




Fig. 17— Floor plan, Crossroads School, Macon Co., 111. 

visible. The children can then practice flag drills and salute the 
flag with much gTeater intimacy than they can when it is far out of 
reach and more or less out of sight on the top of the buildiiig. 

The basement and floor plans reproduced are worthy of study 
in connection with the photographs. The whole space under the 
building has been excavated and frirnishes a frirnace room, a coal 
room, a stairway to the basement, and a large well-lighted room 
for play and work. It is to be regTetted that somewhere in this 
splendid building provision was not made for Ulterior flush toilets 
and bathing facUities. The use of the basement for playroom and 
workshop is a splendid idea, but in the climate of lUinois outside 



PLANS FOR RURAL SCHOOLHOUSES. 



97 



toilets often necessitate the exposure of the children to inclement 
and cold weather in winter. The building deserves a septic-tank 
disposal and a pressure-tank water supply, which would have made 
possible flush toilets, drinking fountains, and shower baths. In 
the plan of the basement area spaces are introduced about the 
windows so as to allow larger windows, and thereby get more light 
into the basement rooms. 

The floor plan of the building shows a cloakroom for the boys 
and one for the girls, a library, and a vestibule. Evidently when 
the building was constructed two more windows were added to the 




Fig. 18.— Basement plan, Crossroads School, Macon Co., 111. 

east side of the classroom than are shown in the floor plans. It is 
more than probable that if the five windows shown in the floor plan 
had been made higher and moved slightly to the rear better lighting 
would have resulted than now obtains. 

The various suggestions herein made must be understood as 
suggestions, not as criticisms, for this building is unusually attractive 
and carefully planned, and is to be commended to all who are inter- 
ested in the consti-uction of a high type of country-school building. 

Plate 24 represents an attractive one-teacher rural schoolhouse 
in district No. 9, Canandaigua, Ontario County, N. Y,, and also 



98 



RURAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GROUNDS. 



the abandoned building whicb this new building displaced.* The 
floor plan, as will be seen (fig. 19), shows the classroom 24 feet long 
and 21 feet wide, large enough to accommodate about 25 or 30 
pupils of such ages as attend country schools. 

The orientation of the building is such as to secure effective light- 
ing from the four windows facing the east. Two full-length windows 
are placed in the rear on the north. These woidd be valuable in 
hot weather, but for the purpose of lighting they are more trouble- 
some than helpful. They must introduce some trying shadows to 
workers in the rear of the room, and will certainly make it very hard 




DooitS 




SCHOOL ROOM 
21 X 24 



,5CHOOL BUtLDl/JG FOR, 
D15T./S0 9 CA/^AAlDAlGUA.yNY. 

OTTO BLOCK, AR-Cl-llTeCT 

R.OCHeiTE-R- - /N Y 



Fig. 19.— Floor plan of No. 9, Canandaigua, N. Y. 

OQ the eyes of the teacher, who must face them whenever she is ia 
the front of the room. It would have been better if these windows 
had been only half length, with the bottoms 8 feet above the floor. 
The children then would have been more carefully shielded in winter 
from the cold winds entering about the sash; the troublesome shad- 
ows would have been largely eliminated; opportunity for a breeze 
would still be afforded; and most certainly the teacher would have 
been relieved. In addition, blackboards could have been set on this 
wall under such windows, if additional blackboards should ever be 
needed. 



1 Used by courtesy of Miss Alice G. McCloskey, editor of the Cornell Eural School Leaflet (see vol. 6, 
No. 1, p. 175, September, 1912). 



PLANS P^OR RURAL SCHOOLHOUSES. 9& 

The height of the lower sash above the floor and the proximity of 
the tops of the windows to the ceiling arc not apparent, but the 
grouping of the lateral windows is good, and this small room can be 
well light(>d from the four windows, if the shades are handled intelli- 
gently. The interior decoration of the room is tasteful, and the 
placing of the blackboards excellent. The color scheme used is as 
follows : The ceilitig and the [side walls as far down as the picture 
molding are cream color; the main part of the room is pale green; the 
library is terra cotta; the fireplace in the library is red pressed brick. 

Tlie library, with the sliding doors, fireplace, and furniture, is 
especially attractive and is, no doubt, the most alluring place in the 
building to the older pupils and the patrons of the school. The 
rather unique lobby, the stairways to the basement, and the simple 
attractive porch are all commendable. 

In the drawing the hot-air register is apparently shown opening 
through the floor. In practice this might become decidedly objec- 
tionable. The dirt and dust from the floor would certainly enter 
such a register and be scattered through the room by the upward 
movement of the currents of warm air. The proper place for this 
register is in the central part of the wall between the library and the 
classroom. This position would not only prevent a great loss of heat 
through the use of a long duct in the basement (it is assumed that 
the one chimney serves both the fireplace and the heater), but would 
prevent the warmed fresh air from short-circuiting over the heads 
of the children and going du-ectly out at the exit and the fireplace* 
This would certainly happen if the register is located as shown in 
the floor plan. 

One excellent feature of this building is its simplicity. There are 
no towei-s or excrescences of any sort. A country carpenter can build 
it at a minimum expense for lumber and millwork. 

The tasteful treatment of the garden is especially to be commended. 
There is a hedge of Lombardy poplars forming both a pleasing 
backgi'ound and a windbreak on the west. In addition to these, 
there are 9 elms, 1 white pine, 8 Norway maples, 1 Norway spruce, 
3 hemlocte, 1 English wahmt, 24 dogwoods, 1 shrub of white honey- 
suckle, 24 shrubs of spirea, 24 Dorothy Perkijis rosebushes, and 24 
shrubs of barberry. These names are cited to show what can be 
done to beautify and instruct in nature work on a school lot of 1 acre. 

Tlie spirit that made the Canandaigua school possible is indicated 
in the following statement by Mr. Booth, the district superintendent: 

My reason for the worl? in district No. 9, Canandaigua, was that the schoolhouse 
and its gi-ounds were the most neglected places in the neighborhood. A beautiful 
lake-shore drive passing homes with all modern improvements, which were a jjleasure 
to look on, presented in marked contrast the place in which boys and girls, the best 
assets from these homes, were receiving their education. The schoolhouse was built 



100 RURAL SOHOOLHOUSES AND GROUNDS, 

in 1819, the deed calling for no more ground than that on which the building was to 
stand. The outhouses were on land that belonged to the public highway. 

At the time I took up the work, many of the school patrons felt that the wisest 
plan was to close the school and send the pupils to town. I do not believe in this 
method when it is possible to avoid it. I believe that children are better cared for 
near their homes than when they go to and from school in a carryall, with an indiffer- 
ent driver and no supervision; remaining in town all day, where, in order to maintain 
order and a fair citizenship, we must have churches, Y. M. C. A.'s, and a police force. 

Very often the reason for closing the rural school and sending children to town is 
because it is cheaper and the patrons are not willing to assume the duties of the school 
and dignify those duties by their interest and cooperation. In our district to-day 
I am happy to say that we are hearing little of the closing of rural schools. 

One of the first thing's I did was to ask Mr. F. G. Benham, who owned the farm of 
which the school lot was a part, to give us an acre of land. This was at once granted 
on condition that I could carry out the plan of improvement. I then appealed to the 
citizens of the village who enjoy the lake drive for help in the enterprise, and re- 
ceived $300. A meeting of the taxpayers was next called, at which a resolution ac- 
cepting the money and land was passed and a levy of $2,000 made. Then, with the 
united efforts of school commission and people, we accomplished the election of a trus- 
tee in sympathy with the work we were trying to perform. 

With the gift of land and money, and $2,000 of the district money, we went to work. 
We had an engineer of good standing to lay out the grounds, and I think this was a 
most important step. We next engaged a good architect, who said at once that our 
plans could not be carried out with the amount of money we had. I told him that I 
was raised on a farm and never lifted a stone when I could roll one, and I believed we 
could do it. I proceeded, however, to get more interest and help. The workmen 
entered into the spirit of the thing, working hard and overtime and deducting a goodly 
amount from their bills. By the end of the year all was finished and paid for. 

But this is not all. Later there was donated to the school a swing, which is a be- 
ginning in the interest of recreation apparatus for the boys and girls. We then re- 
membered that we had a friend in the gas and oil business. I asked him if he would 
like to have the honor of presenting us with a steel fiagpole. As a demonstration of 
his response, we now have a flag flying from a 40-foot steel pole set in concrete. There 
are many persons who like to do things if they have definite understanding of the need 
and value of their contributions. 

We are now planning for an endowment fund, the interest of which will be used 
for the care and improvement of the school grounds, the district to look out for the 
building. The raising of an endowment fund is valuable for the community. It 
means looking ahead, a consideration of the futine. 

The following reproductions of photographs of the Silas Willard 
School, of Galesburg, 111., are worthy of study by those who are 
considering consohdation and are seeking the best type of consoli- 
dated rural or village school. Some of the features in this school 
deserve special attention. 

In the first place, the classrooms are provided with skyhghting as 
well as with supplemental side hghting. By reference to plate 34, 
and their effect this type of hghting will be clearly seen. The 
question whether skyhghts such as these are necessary or even 
helpful in this type of school building can not be answered without 
making certain reservations. There are conditions, in smoky cities 



PLANS FOR KUEAL SCHOOLHOUSES. 



101 



and in localities with much dark, cloudy weather, where skjHghts 
are helpful, particularly in one-story buildings. Generally speaking, 
however, if buildings are properly orientated and if the requisite 
amount of glass surface is correctly set in the walls, unilateral lighting 
is to bo preferred for classrooms not over 24 feet wide to any com- 
bination of sky and lateral Ugh ting. 

There can bo no doubt, however, that the windows shown in the 
rear of these classrooms could either have been left out to advantage 
or have been made half length and set at least 8 feet above the floor. 
They certainly are not needed for light, and if on warm days a breeze 




Fjg. 20.— Main floor plan, Silas Willard Scliool. 

is desirable the small high windows would serve this purpose witliout 
exposing the teacher to the glare of these low windows. 

These beautiful classrooms could be well hghted by setting in the 
walls to the left of the pupils one-fifth as much glass surface as there 
is floor space, provided the windows were set 4 feet above the floor 
and were extended to at least 6 inches from the ceiHng, thus throwing 
the Ught weU across the room. Close examination of the interior 
views will show that skylighting does not give as good illumination 
on the blackboard as on the desks and the floor. Tliis is not a 
serious objection for classrooms designed for the upper grades, but it 
needs to be pointed out. It should be said that the light introduced 
by these skyhghts is diffused north Hght and is very soft. 



102 



RUEAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GEOUNDS. 



Another special feature of this excellent building is the well-Ughted 
and commodious basement, designed to be used for assembly and for 
general community gatherings. It has a stage and an excellent 
floor for dancing, drills, gymnastic work, etc. A basement is not 
the best place for an assembly room, but often it is necessary, through 
ack of funds, to attempt to meet the demands for an assembly room 
in the next best way. This basement room, as will be observed, is 
not more than 3i feet below the level of the ground; and as the 
building is situated on ground higher than the surrounding territory 
the room can be so underdrained as to render it dry and wholesome. 
The basement walls can be built of concrete and either finished to a 




Fig. 21.— Basement plan, Silas Willard School. 

smooth surface or faced with Hght glazed brick or tile. This would 
improve the illumination and make the room more sanitary. 

The arrangement and treatment of the hall deserve a few words of 
explanation. By reference to Plate 35A it will be seen that all of the 
rooms open off this one central hall. The skyhght gives the hall 
beautiful illumination without the use of any auxiUary outside 
windows. The only objection to this arrangement is that the toilets 
are rather too conspicuous. This objection could be readily obviated 
in future buildings of this type. 

Workrooms and baths are supplied, and a central hot-air and fan 
system furnishes heat and ventilation. The transoms over the 



PLANS FOR RURAL SCHOOLHOUSES. 



103 



doors and the glass in the doors could have been left out to advantage 
and with economy. 

Taken all in all, the building is excellent and beautifully simple in 
construction. It has been introduced for the consideration of those, 
as mentioned above, who arc charged with the construction of small 
country high schools, consolidated country schools, or village ele- 
mentary schools. 

The interesting school building represented by the accompanying 
reproductions of photographs and floor plans ^ is in use at Cocoanut 
Grove, Fla. It is representative of a new type for the South and is 
worthy the study of aU school people who are charged with building 




n 








"1 


" 




■ 












SAW TOOTH 5KY UIGHX 


::i[iEi: 


,11 


Nil 





Fig. 22.— Attic and roof plan, Silas Willard School. 

village schools, country high schools, or consolidated country schools. 
It is especially adapted to conditions where the population is increas- 
ing and where additions are anticipated, for additions can be added 
at a minimum of expense and with practically no disturbance to the 
original building. This is a desideratum of no small moment. For 
example, the country consoHdated schools and the country high 
schools are stiU somewhat in the experimental stage, especially with 
reference to the number of pupils they will ultimately accommodate. 
This form of building permits additions to meet the needs and without 
doing any violence to the architectural ideal set forth in the first units. 
It thus warrants the use of permanent materials, such as concrete or 
stone, and, hence, in the long run will prove economical. 



> Plate 12; figure 23. 



104 



RUEAL SOHOOLHOUSES AND GEOUNDS. 



The one-story court and pergola form of structure eliminates the 
need for stairways and halls and reduces congestion and noise to a 
minimum. In warm cUmates where httle or no artificial heat is 




Fig. 23. — Floor plan, school at Cocoanut Grove, Fla. 

needed, space and expense are saved by the eUmination of basements 
for heating apparatus. If, however, heat is needed, it can be fur- 
nished by a central detached plant for the use of low-pressure steam 



PLANS FOR RURAL SCHOOLHOUSES. 105 

or, if tlio climate is suflicioutly niild in winter, fireplaces could be 
installed at small expense. When the windows and the system of 
heating are correctly arranged yn.th. due regard to the demands of 
ventilation, fresh air can be introduced by proper manipulation of 
the windows, and thus mudi annoyance and expense may be saved. 

This brings up the matter of the location of the -svindows in this 
building, both as shown in the floor plans and in the photographs. 
It would have been very much better if the hght had been admitted 
from one side only. If double the number of wuidows had been 
placed in one side, and breeze windows —that is, short windows set 8 
feet above the floor — had been set on the other side of the classroom, 
the hghting would have been far more satisfactory and the ventilation 
more evenly distributed Unilateral Ughting of classrooms is the only 
justifiable method (see chap. 6). The height above the floor of the 
lower part of the windows is 3^ feet. For the advanced classes 4 
feet would have been better. The lower part of the windows should 
alwavs be above the level of the eyes of the children when seated at 
their desks. 

If the windows had been grouped on one side of the classrooms, as 
suggested, and even the same form of sash used as is shown, the class- 
rooms of this building could be almost instantly turned into prac- 
tically open-air rooms. If the sashes were made in one piece and 
either hinged at the top and opening in, so that they might be drawn 
up to the coihng, leaving the window space entirely open, or possibly 
pivoted in the center, another advantage would have been gained. 
In fact some cf the windows in this builcUng are pivoted.* 

On account of the immediate demand for a small assembly room, 
the classroom opposite has been made too wide for economical con- 
struction and classroom work. In low structures of this type the 
classrooms should never be over 24 feet wide, and preferably 22 feet 
if the number of pupils in each classroom does not exceed 30 or 35. 
Those who build after this model would do better to sacrifice the width 
of the temporary assembly room to the classroom than to expand 
the classroom for the sake of the temporary assembly room. Tlie 
two smaller classrooms in front are approximately correct in size 
and proportion. 

The cloaki'ooms should receive their ventilation and lightmg 
immediately from the outside instead of from the classroom. This 
change could be easily made by sunply extending the partition to 
the outer wall and opening a window. Doors to the cloakrooms 
could then be set in the most convenient places. 

Aside from the foregoing suggestions, only praise and commenda- 
tion are to be given to this building for its beauty and adaptability 

I According to Mr. H. H. Bundy, the architect, to whom thanks are due for the photographs and draw- 
ings here reproduced. 

40742°— Bull. 12—14 8 



106 



RUEAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GEOUNDS. 



to country-scliool conditions. It suggests the open air, will blend 
well with almost any setting, is economical of material, easy of access, 
and wholly inviting. The courts and pergolas unify as well as 
beautify, and the spirit of it all is quiet, unassuming, and restful. 

A final word of suggestion may not be amiss. It has to do with 
the ''future" assembly room. Here is a splendid opportunity for an 
open-air theater. In Florida there are comparatively few days even 
in winter when, instead of using an inclosed room for assembly pur- 
poses, an open-air theater might not be used, especially for short 
periods of morning exercises and for general midday gatherings. 
Let us suppose, therefore, a moderate excavation made back of the 
court, a series of concrete amphitheater seats and a liberal stage 




Fig. 24.— Plan of one-teacher rui'al scliool, designed by J. L. Sibley. 

erected, and all protected from the wind by properly placed walls 
and from the rain by a roof designed to harmonize with the whole 
scheme. Such an assembly room would be far more useful and 
attractive than an inclosed buildmg, however well it might be con- 
structed. Of course this open-air assembly room would have to 
be adapted to meet local weather conditions. In the section of 
Florida where this school is located the heavy beating rains of the 
autumn season would make it difficult to keep the water out of the 
slight excavation that would be necessary. This might be over- 
come by drainage in most places or, where it is possible, by taking 
advantage of a natural slope without excavation. Many parts of 
the South and West would not have to make such decided efforts 
to guard against beating rainstorms as would the east coast of Florida. 



PLANS FOR RURAL SCHOOLHOUSES. 107 

Tho one-teacher rural school described in the following specifica- 
tions and illustrated by figures 5, 8, and 24, is from plans drawn by- 
Mr. J. L. Sibley, one of the rural-school supervisors of Alabama. 
It is designed to accommodate 40 to 45 pupils, and, as will be seen, 
has a workroom, a tool room, two cloakrooms, and a library in 
addition to the classroom. The dimensions of each room are shown 
on the floor plan. The height of the ceiling is to be 12 feet between 
ceiling joists and floor joists, making the distance between finished 
floor and finished ceiling approximately 11 feet 8 inches. Other 
dimensions will appear in the specifications. 

Specifications for One-Teacher Rural School. 

The building is to be 18 inches above ground. The corner pillars to be 8 by 32 
inches; other pillars to be 8 by IG inches. Sills to be 4 by 8 inches. One sill to pass 
through center of the building and be supported by 8 by 16 inch pillar. Joists to 
be 2 by 10 inches, set 20 inches 0. 0. Studs to be 2 by 4 inches, set 24 inches O. C. 
Ceiling joists to be 2 by 6 inches, set 24 inches 0. C. Ceiling joists over teacher's 
library, vestibulo, cloakrooms, and tool room to be 2 by 4 inches, set 24 inches 0. C. 
Rafters to be 2 by 4 inches, set 24 inches O. C, and well braced by a tie across from 
rafter to rafter— this tie to be placed about half way of each rafter. Building to be 12 
feet between ceiling joists and floor joists. Blackboards to be 4 feet wide, 30 inches 
from the floor, and to run around three sides of the room where there 9.re no openings. 

If no weights are to be used on windows, the window frames are to be made so that 
the to}) sash can be let down 12 inches from the top by means of a hinged strip, which 
forms a part of the blind stop, and is the width and thickness of sash. 

The following bill of lumber and other material is required: 
Lumber: 

9 pieces, 4 by 8 inches by 18 feet — Sills. 
4 pieces, 4 by 8 inches by 16 feet — Sills. 

C2 pieces, 2 by 10 inches by 16 feet — Floor joists. 

26 pieces, 2 by 6 inches by 24 feet — Ceiling joists set 24 inches O. C. 

13 pieces, 2 by 4 inches by 14 feet — Ceiling joists set 24 inches O. C. 

24 pieces, 2 by 4 inches by 20 feet — Rafters. 

8 pieces, 2 by 4 inches by 20 feet — Cripples. 

8 pieces, 2 by 4 inches by 16 feet — Cripples. 

12 pieces, 2 by 4 inches by 14 feet — Cripples. 

8 pieces, 2 by 4 inches by 12 feet — Cripples. 

10 pieces, 2 by 4 inches by 10 feet — Cripples. 

8 pieces 2 by 4 inches by 14 feet — Hipps — spliced. 

33 pieces 1 by 6 inches by 20 feet — Ridge saddle and roof braces. 

30 pieces 2 by 4 inches by 16 feet — Plates. 

100 pieces 2 by 4 inches by 12 feet — Studding. 

41 pieces 4 by 4 inches by 12 feet — Studding posts. 

18 M No. 2 shingles. 

1,200 square feet sheathing. 

2,000 square feet No. 2 flooring. 

2,850 square feet weatherboarding, f by 6 inches. 

6,850 square feet ceiling required (approximately); for each room divide as fol- 
lows: Classroom, 2,685 square feet; workroom, 1,485 square feet; vestibule and 
teacher's library, 1,415 square feet; cloaki-ooms and tool room, 1,100 square feet. 



108 



RURAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GROUNDS. 



Lumber — Continued. 

3 pieces 1} by 12 inches by 10 feet — ^Treads. 
3 pieces 1 by 7 inches by 10 feet — 'Risers. 

1 piece 2 by 12 inches by 14 feet — Stringers. 
Windows: 

18 windows 10 by IS inches — 12 lights and frame complete. 

2 single sash 10 by 18 inches — 12 lights and frame complete. 




Fig. 25. — Floor plan for one-teacher rural school of m inim um cost. 
Doors: 

1 door 3 by 7 feet by IJ inches — No. 2 and frame complete. 

4 doors 2 feet 8 inches by 6 feet 8 inches by 1^ inches — No. 2 and frame complete. 
1 double door 5 by 7 feet by 1| inches — No. 2 and frame complete. 
900 feet of quarter round. 
Two 6-inch T. C. thimbles. 
Bricks and lime: 1,100 for chimney; 540 for pillars; 1,200 underpinning; 4 barrels 
lime. 



PLANS FOR RURAL SCHOOLHOUSES. 



109 



Naila: Onekeg20d.; l^kegsSd.; 2keg8 6d.; CO pounds shingle; 20 pounds finishing. 

Locks: 6 rim locks; 1 front-door lock. 

Hinges: 7 pairs hinges, 3^ ])y 3\ inches, loose pin; 3 pairs hinges, for single sash. 

Transom lifts: 3 transom lifts — 1 for each single sash. 

Paint for house — outside and inside door frames: 100 pounds white lead, 10 gallons 

linseed oil, 2 pounds lampblack. 
Classroom: Walls, 4 packages kalsomino— light buff; ceiling, 2 packages kalsomine — 

cream. 





Window/- 8 atova. 



^^ ~%lrZ^\ ^ ^-'^°-' ^''^^^^A \g ' . 



Class'^oom 

30'kZZ' 



ri y H W M M- 



^ T+n. I 

-4 -(»- - 






-f- 



Class^oo/A 4iw 



30 xZS 




Fig. 26.— Two-teacher rural school; connected by pergola. 

Workroom: Walls, 1 J packages kalsomine — light buff; ceiling, 1 package kalsomine — 

cream. 
Teache^' library, cloakroom, and vestibule: Walls, 3 packages kalsomine — light buff; 

ceiling, 1 package kalsomine — cream. 

Figure 25 represents a drawing for a floor plan of a one-teacher 
rural school reduced almost to the limit of inexpensiveness. It con- 
tains a classroom, a fuel room, a workroom, a library and office 
room, and a cloakroom. The representation for this building should 
include an uncovered porch and a low, flat roof, with wide eaves. 




CJno.x<^ava+«.d 



(■S' X.11' . 



"Boy^'Woi-k ■ - 

■R-oom 
TLA'x 11' 



T ^ii'^'^T 




Fig. 27. — Basement plan of two-teacher rural school. « 

This plan in the hands of an artistic architect would suggest an 
attractive building and satisfy a community yet unable to supply 
more than its actual needs. 

Figures 26 and 27 represent drawings for floor plan and basement of 
i\, two-teacher rural school. As will be seen, these are separate build- 
ings, connected by pergolas or a court. These pergolas can be con- 
structed of rough timber and covered with vines. The court can be 



110 



RURAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GROUISTDS. 



used as a flower garden or grass plat, as seems most suitable. In the 
center of the cross pergola a drinking fountain is suggested, with a 
wall about 5 feet high between it and the platform for the open-air 
assembly room. This arrangement would give privacy to the open-air 



ta^t 




1 n.+«.r me^ia+'a.' 



^ W W W iH—^—ph-p t 



■'rirrtary 
3o')t ZZ' 



Unco v«r« d Varch. 

^ n^ — T ^ 



(1 



-" ^'' H 1 = 



Fig. 28.— Floor plan, tkree-teaclier consolidated rural school with open-air assembly and class room. 

assembly room and would fin-nish a background for a small stage 
under the pergola. The posts for these pergolas should be at least 
8 feet above the ground and may be set at such distance as the 




Fig. 29.— Basement plan of three-teacher building shown in Fig. 28. 

builder sees fit. The side pergola should be about 6 feet wide and 
the cross pergola about 10 feet. 

The basement is designed to supply a workroom for the boys and 
one for the girls, with toilets and separate heater in each. The 
unexcavated area is indicated. These basement rooms should be 



PLANS FOR BURAL SCHOOLHOUSES. 



HI 



well drained and well lighted. The entrance to these toilet rooms 
should be through the workrooms, thus insuring privacy and pre- 
venting additional expense in the way of steps. The entrances to 
the furnace and fuel rooms are indicated in the drawing. 

It would bo economical and satisfactory in this building to use a 
low roof with comparatively wide eaves. No towers or belfries are 
permissible. 

Figures 28 and 29 are floor plans and basement plans designed for a 
three-teacher consolidated rural school with a suggestion for an 




Fig. 30. — Two-teacher niral school. 

open-air assembly and classroom. In addition to the cloakrooms 
opening off each classroom, the floor plan shows a library and a girls' 
worla'oom. The basement plan represents a fuel and furnace room 
and an unexcavated area, boys' toilet and worlo-ooms, and girls' 
toilet and playroom. The ducts for heating the rooms can be car- 
ried under the floor of the central room, or, if a steam or hot-water 
system is used, pipes can be managed in the same way, thus giving 
opportunity for a central heating plant for all the rooms. The flue 
can be made double, to serve both for the furnace and for a range in 
the girls' worla'oom. The steps to the basement rooms are indi- 
cated on the front of the building and, except in cold chmates, need 



112 



RUEAi. SCHOOLHOUSES AND GEOUNDS. 



not be covered if proper drainage is insured. The door to the fuel 
and furnace room is indicated on the south side. It may be placed 
at any other point if more convenient. The front porch is to be left 
open, and the floor should be made of cement, so that it can be 
cleaned most easily. 

If the ground upon which the building is set slopes west, it will 
be comparatively easy to carry out the suggestions for the open-air 
assembly room. Naturally the topography of the school lot will 
determine the best position for the open-air theater. This school- 
house should be constructed with a comparatively fiat roof and 




BASEMENT PLAN east side 

Fig. 31.— Basement plan, model rural school, Kirksville, Mo. 

rather wide eaves, and mth a little skiU on the part of the architect 
could be made a very beautiful and inexpensive building. 

Figure 30 represents the floor plan for a two-teacher rural school 
building. This plan is designed with two workrooms, a*library, 
separate cloakrooms for the boys and girls of each room, two fuU- 
sized classrooms, and two porches. These porches should have 
cement floors dropped 2 or 3 inches below the entrance to the 
classrooms. The arrangement of the rooms with reference to each 
other can be easily made out from the floor plans. 

The basement has outer entrances which may be covered with 
roofs joining to the main structure. The toilets and the bath- 



PLANS FOR RTTRAL SCHOOLHOUSES. 



113 



rooms are ample and can be well lighted by using nontransparent, 
but roughened, translucent glass. This will make them private and 
at the same time give an abundance of light, especially if area ways 
are excavated. The furnace and fuel room can be lighted in the 
same way, or transparent glass can l^e used in this room. The en- 
trance to the furnace and fuel room is made through the boys' toilet 
and bath, and in this way expense can be reduced and satisfactory 
results obtained. As planned, only a part of the area beneath the 
building is to bo excavated. The wall, however, separating the 
area beneath the workrooms and the library should be solid and 
without communication to the area beneath the classrooms. The 
ceilings could be so treated as to prevent the escape of any possible 




Fig. 32. — First floor plan, model rural school, Kirksville, Mo. 

odors from the basement rooms to the rooms above. The toilets 
and the bathrooms should have cement floors, and a tile drain 
should surround the building, to prevent any possible seepage into 
these rooms. Naturally if running water is not furnished either by 
pressure tank or some other water supply, toilets and baths could 
not be introduced, and the rooms for them could then be used as 
worlvTooms. 

If a hot-air furnace is used, the register should be brought up 
on the inner walls to a point about 8 feet above the floor, and the 
exits should be at the floor on the same side in order to secure a good 



114 



RURAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GROUNDS. 



circulation of air. The library and the cloakrooms can be heated 
and ventilated in the same way. If hot water or steam is used, it 
would be well to put the radiators on the window side of the class- 
room in order to insure the best circulation in cold weather and to 
prevent draughts. The use of window boards with steam or hot- 
water heating will make it possible to get more ventilation and to 
insure fairly equable heat throughout the rooms. The radiators 
in the library and the other rooms can be located to suit conditions. 



skyI; lioht 



48 ■■ !:X20- 
SHY MLICHt 



m 



GASOLINE 
,^^AS STOVE 



SAKfTABV 
DRINKING*— 
FOUNTAIN 



c. 



^WASH BOWl 



WRRENCJ- 



_f a X20- 

SKV LtOHT 



Fig. 33.~Attic plan, model rui'al sctiool, Kirksville, Mo. 

No breeze windows have been introduced into the ends of the class- 
room, because the door to the library can be left open in warm 
weather, thus securing a breeze through the library as well as through 
the doors opening to the porches. 

Figures 31, 32, and 33 show the basement, first floor, and attic 
plans of the model rural school at the Kirksville State Normal 
School, Kirksville, Mo. Plate 20B shows the machinery located in 
the basement, by which city conveniences are made possible in a 
rural school. 



Chapter VIII. 

REMODELING COUNTRY SCHOOLHOUSES. 



If tho reader will i)icture to himself an old building with two or 
three small windows on each side, a door in the gable end, a high- 
pitched roof, sm^monnted by some make-believe beKry or tower, and 
a small chhnney emerging at the comb of the roof near the center of 
the building, he will have before him the exterior outline of tlie pre- 
vailing type of a rural schoolhouse. These buildings are usually 
of wood and rest on brick pillars, with more or less open space between 
the floor and the groimd, so that the wind sweeps through without 
hindrance. The building is generally unpainted, or, perhaps, was 
once pamted. Many of the boards on the side are disconnected, 
showing the ribs of the structure underneath. 

Within the building we shall probably find a box stove in the center, 
rusty and dirty, possibly hoisted on halves of bricks, or, if a little more 
caution has been exercised, standing in a box filled with sand, into 
which the legs of the stove extend. A rusty pipe runs straight up 
through the ceiling into the central flue. Double benches, ranged on 
either side of the stove, face toward the back of the room, where a 
teacher's desk surmounts a useless and troublesome platform. The 
floors are single, made of rough boards, and the cracks are more or less 
stopped up with dirt. There is no cloakroom in the rear; hats and 
wraps are piled up on old benches or hung on naUs driven into the 
wall. Somewhere in this part of the room a dirty water bucket, with 
its accompanymg long-handled, rusty dipper, contains the visible 
supply of drinking water. It is needless to describe the walls, the 
appearance of the windows, the kind of blackboards, the condition 
of the desks. Those who know country schools can fill out this picture 
in its minutest detail. 

Suppose this buildiiig is in a fan* state of repair; that is, too good 
to give up and too bad to teach school in. Wliat can be done to 
make it more beautiful and more insphing as a place for teacher and 
pupils ? Tills is a practical question, and should be dealt with in a 
practical manner. Figure 14 represents the floor plan of an actual 
building, such as described. Suppose we make a study of this plan 
and see what could be done in the way of reconstructing or remodehng 
the building. The fii-st thing to do would be to double the number 

115 



116 



EUEAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GROUNDS. 



of windows on the left side as you enter the door, and, if need be, 
enlarge them until the floor space to be used as a classroom shall not 




Fig. 34.— Reconstructed floor plan for an old building (based on fig. 14, p. 91) . 

be greater than five times the area of all the glass in the windows. 
This is a practical preliminary step to assure economical proportions 
of hght and space, with due regard to hygienic requirements. In 
all probability this floor plan, which is 36 feet long and 24 feet wide, 
represents one-third more space than would be needed for a class- 



REMODELING COUNTRY SCHOOLHOUSES. 117 

room, if the seats were properly arranged, tlio stovo hotter placed, 
and the lighting well adjusted. 

In the second place, it will be necessary to study the school popula- 
tion of the district to discover how many children of school age really 
reside in that district and how many are likely to attend school. Sup- 
pose the average attendanc^e for the last three or four years has not 
been greater than 25, which number represents the attendance in a 
large majority of the district schools. For this number of pupils the 
room is needlessly large; hence we ought to reduce it, not by samng 
the buildmg in two, but by erecting a partition and utilizing the rest 
of the floor space for other purposes. If, on the basis of 25 pupils, 
each pupil is allowed 20 square feet of floor surface — a liberal esti- 
mate — then 500 square feet would represent the floor surface of the 
schoohoom needed for class purposes. The room is 24 feet in width; 
hence a length of 22 feet would yield 500 square feet and some space 
to spare. Suppose for good measure and for possible increase in the 
number of pupils during the winter time tlie room be made 24 feet 
square. These dimensions would give enough floor space for approxi- 
mately 29 pupils, and would still leave a space 12 feet wide and 24 
feet long at the rear of the room wliich, if partitioned off, would make 
the classroom much more attractive and usable as a schooboom. 
The partition would cut off the door, and an entrance would have to 
be made elsewhere. Probably the best place for it is that shown in 
in figure 35, for the small porch needed will be mexpensive and the 
door will be convenient both to and from the classroom. The remain- 
ing long window on this side of the classroom could be removed to the 
other side, and two or three small windows for ventilation could be 
set 8 feet above the floor. Three ventilators, probably two, would 
be ample in most climates. In order to get sufficient hght, two more 
■^-indov/s should be added and set, as indicated, in the left wall. The 
space occupied by the old door can be readily adapted for an extra 
window. 

Out of the space thus cut off' a cloakroom 8 by 12 feet should be 
made, as shown, and also a small fuel room. The doors should be 
set as indicated. There still remains a good-sized room to be utilized 
as a library or as a general workroom. 

If it be deemed better to use this space for a library, then the fol- 
lowing suggestions may be worth while: The first need is a teacher 
mth some vision and enthusiasm to build up in the district school a 
school and community library ; then some cooperation from the county 
superintendent or the coimty board of education, some help from the 
State superintendent's office, some help from the women's library 
associations or clubs, a little aid from all in the community willing to 
lend a book, give a book, or donate sufficient money to buy a book; 
and the library work begins. A teacher who would undertake this work 



118 



EUEAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GEOUNDS. 



would doubtless have some taste. She would want to make this room 
the most beautiful in the buHding and would devise ways and means 
for cleam'ng and preparing the floor and for obtaining a few tasteful 
rugS; some inexpensive but beautiful pictures, a reading table, and 
Bome chairs. As a result, instead of the disagreeable and desolate 
appearance of the old schoolroom, there would be an attraction — a 



CUASS'^OO/A 









• 



C'aima«.y 



Libra ry and 
Qirl/'WorkT^oom 



Cloalc 
'R.oom 

s'x \z' 



t 



f 

s 





<p 



V9 



?or-ch 



^^ 



Fig. 35.— Same plan as figure 34 with better division of floor space. 

room with books, with magazines; a place for the people of the neigh- 
borhood to come, even during school time, to read and borrow books; 
consequent opportunities for more sympathetic contact with the school 
situation. 

"How much would this reconstruction cost?" This question can 
not be answered with any exactness, because of different labor condi- 



EEMODELING COUNTRY SCHOOLHOUSES. 119 

tions in different parts of the country; but surely changing one door, 
removing one window from one sido of the room to the other, adding 
three largo windows, adding two or three small windows and two 
doors, changing the location of the flue, and replacing the stove could 
be done at a comparatively small expense. The relocation and 
grouping of the benches would cost nothing, and the material equip- 
ment of the library could gi-ow as conditions permit. The cost of tlie 
partition walls and of the new porch would augment somewhat the 
suni of these expenses. 

Of course a regular jacketed stove should replace the old box stove 
as soon as possible, or the old stove should be surrounded with a sheet 
of galvanized iron, set 6 or 8 inches above the floor and extendmg 
about 8 or 10 inches above the top of the stove. This shield should 
encuTlo the stove on all sides save that in which the door is situated, 
and it need not be over 8 inches distant from the stove at any point. 
With this arrangement pupils can sit near the stove without being 
overheated, i!nd the circulation thus set up will enable the whole room 
to be more equably heated than before. 

Imagine if you can, the different 'spirit that would come over a 
pupil, say, of the seventh or eighth grade, who was permitted to spend 
part of his day at work in the library instead of being required to 
remain in the classroom, listening to the droning lessons of the younger 
pupils and bemg distracted in many ways. 

This is only one of many methods of remodeling this sort of a dis- 
trict schoolhouse. We might take the same floor plan agaia and 
by going to a little greater expense extend the entrance porch and 
build a workroom 8 or 10 feet wide off it. If this addition were 
properly proportioned, it would not greatly disfigure the building, 
for starting with a bad form, we must look primarily toward added 
usefulness. The expense of making this addition would of course 
be greater, but it would make a more complete country school. In 
the workroom thus proposed all of those thmgs pertaining especially 
to the home life of the children could be undertaken and the curricu- 
lum could thus be greatly enriched. 

Old buildmgs are not the only ones which need remodeling. Sup- 
pose, as an example of what might be done in increasing the useful- 
ness of a new building, we take the new and in many ways excellent 
rural school building now in use in West Virginia, represented in 
plate 15B, which shows its general outside appearance and location. 
Very slight excavation and the placing of windows and doors in the 
basement walls would have sufficed to make it possible to introduce 
a furnace, a fair-sized worki^oom, toilets, and baths under this build- 
ing, one side of which is high above the sloping gTound of a steep 
hillside. 



120 RUKAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GROUNDS. 

If the money spent on the tower had been used in developing the 
basement, probably there would have been little need of adding to 
that sum to make the basement entirely suitable for the purposes 
indicated. In addition to its usual uselessness, this tower is bound 
to interfere with the chimney draft when the wind blows from 
the direction of the cupola. A steep roof is not needed on this build- 
ing, even though it may be in a snowy country; for it is not difficult 
on a small building of this sort to construct a roof that would with- 
stand all of the weight of ordinary snows. 

In the main, the lines of this building are good. The building, as 
it stands, suggests a tasteful and sanitary interior, in which cloak- 
rooms are furnished, a jacketed stove is employed, and at least some 
semblance to a library is provided. But note the school ground, the 
outhouse, the coal piled up in the yard. Telegraph wires are visible, 
and in all probability a noisy railway is near. What is needed here, 
in addition to carrjdng out the suggestions made with reference to 
utilizing the space beneath the building, is more ground and also more 
public spirit to keep the garden in good shape and to plant trees. 
Country school buildings frequently furnish architects a better oppor- 
tunity for artistic treatment than a large school building in the midst 
of a great city; for the country environment is frequently more sug- 
gestive and inspiring than that possible in most cities. This building 
would have been much more attractive if the roof had been compara- 
tively flat and if the color of the exterior of the building had been 
made to blend with the hillside above it. 

What can be done in reconstructing an old rural school is illustrated 
in the series of photographs of the Porter School, near Kirksville, Mo. 
(Pis. 29 to 32, inclusive.) ^ 

Until September 3, 1912, Porter schoolhouse was in a condition of 
neglect, all too common in rural communities in the United States. 
The house rested practically on the ground, without foundation. A 
few of the shutters were still on ; tramps had taken the rest for fuel. 
The chimney flue was at the east end of the building. There was no 
porch; and the door would not stay shut. Plate 29B shows one of 
the toilets. Comment on this outbuilding is superfluous. The 
tramps had used the door for fuel, and as a consequence the out- 
building had been turned into a boys' toilet. For lack of means no 
change has been made in this building beyond supplying door, lock, 
and key, and a thorough scrubbing. The toilet is locked and un- 
locked dailyo 

Plate 29A represents the Porter School to-day. The photograph 
was taken from the northwest part of the yard and shows the follow- 
ing improvements looking to the health and comfort of the children: 

1 Data and illustrations furnished by Mrs. M. T. Harvey, the teacher under whose guidance the work was 
done. 



REMODELING COUNTRY SCHOOLHOUSES. 121 

{a) A foundation of cement blocks. 

Q}) A temporary porch, steps, and walk, and a shoe scraper so 
designed that the smaUor pupils may support themselves wiiile clean- 
ing their shoes. This device was planned to minimize the dust 
problem, for mud and dust arc plentiful here. 

(c) Door and window screens, the first, so far as known, in a simi- 
lar school in Missouri. 

(tZ) Spouting or guttering to cany the roof water from the building 
and insure a dry basement, which is well protected by a tile drain 
below and outside the foundation. 

(e) This view does not show provisioji for fi-esh-air supply, but this 
has been introduced. 

Plato 32B represents a view i]i the basement after reconstruction. 
A good hot-ail' furnace, with water attachment, has taken the place 
of the old stove in the middle of the room. A concrete floor keeps 
the basement dry and sanitary. 

Plate 32A represents another view in the basement showing a 
pressure water tank and its connections with washbasin and bubbhng 
cup. As will be seen, this pressure tank is well under the ground; 
hence the water does not freeze in winter, keeps cool in the summer, 
and is fit'ee from any possible contamination. 

Plate 30B represents a stage in the process of reconstruction. The 
patched plastering, the lowered blackboard, and the removal of the 
flue indicate that the building is now ready for the painter and the 
paper hanger. During the time the interior was reconstructed school 
was held in the teacher's cottage. The telephone shown in this 
picture is an interesting attachment to a district school and is very 
desirable in case of accident or of severe or sudden illness and in time 
of storm. 

Plate 3lB shows that the light is from the north and entei-s the 
room to the rear and left of the benches here shown. Adjusted 
shades make it possible to light the room fairly well even on dark 
days. A light ceiling and soft tan walls contribute to the lighting 
of the room and give it a pleasing appearance. A bookcase has been 
built in and is fairly well filled with books. 

Plate 31 A shows the south wall of the room and indicates how cross 
lights are prevented by shades in rooms in which windows are intro- 
duced on two sides. Note the reproductions of famous paintings, 
the phonograph, and the reed organ. 

Plate 30 A gives a general idea of the former dilapidated condition 
of the interior of the building and shows the bad arrangement of the 
desks — an arrangement more or less necessary because the stove 
occupied the main part of the room, and in cold weather it had to 
be kept so hot that the children could not sit very close to it. Note 
the dirty and dingy condition of the walls, especially around the flue. 
40742°— Bull. 12—14 9 



Chapter IX 

TEACHERS' COTTAGES. 



In Chapter II reference was made to tlie need cf a cottage or a 
home on the school ground for the rural teacher, and it was there 
suggested that the establishment of homes for men teachers on school 
farms would greatly aid in the work of introducing and maintain- 
ing effective work in agriculture. It is obvious that unless rural 
school pupils can actually engage in experimental work in agri- 
culture under the guidance of a competent teacher, what they 
learn from books will be of little practical value. But since the long 
vacation is coincident in most parts of the country with growing 
crops, unless the teacher remains in charge through the summer 
to guide and direct the work theoretically planned and organized 
during the winter months it will probably go by default. A school 
farm, therefore, should not only be at the disposal of the teacher, 
but a home should be furnished him and he should be employed by 
the year. 

A question arises immediately whether the schoolrooms should 
be a part of a house designed for both purposes or whether the 
teacher's house should be a separate building? 

In European countries, especially in small village schools, the 
teacher's house is usually under the same roof with the school- 
rooms. In larger schools it forms a separate building, but is sit- 
uated on the school grounds. While there is always an advantage 
in the protection of school property in having both buildings under 
one roof, some disadvantages are encountered. In the first place, 
the danger of disturbance to the school or the home must be consid- 
ered. ■ A teacher's family needs privacy; the school children require 
freedom. The playground should not be encroached upon, neither 
should the sanitary appliances be used in common by the school 
and the home. In general, it seems better under conditions in our 
country to reconamend a division of the school grounds into two 
parts, one for the sohoolhouse and playgrounds and the other for 
the teacher's house and the experimental farm and gardens. If 
every country school were supplied with 10 acres of good, well- 
drained land, and 3 acres of it were set apart for playgrounds and 
school buildings and the other 7 acres for a teacher's home and the 
school experiment farm, the ratio would be approximately correct 
122 



TEACHEES COTTAGES. 



123 



tor reasonable needs in most places. The best location of the 
teacher's cottages, with reference to the needs and demands of the 
school building, could only bo made after careful consideration. 
Subtracting the land required for garden and tor all the buildings 
needed for the teacher, there should be at least 5 acres of land left 
for agricultural experimental work. And by experimental work is 
not meant the wasteful use of the land, but the most profitable use 



Pus L/C filfiHWAV 



W=i 



U t) « JJ i> iLi 

7i.ac/iZKr •'■^ 




_, '■pi? Wa/fani^ 



_ 'jT^icf'f 'Prc^/^urc ranj( 



« a rj o o o 
g_ £> o o o o 



£:Ape.rjme.nhl 



s:j n a Zi i:) 




o o a a a o <s 






t? f? « t? t.T t1 »,1 






/<3/-A>*/ /T-^t^ 



£xper/menfa/ Farm 
£.Acrey 



Cou/fnzY SCffooL /?iE/n 



Fig. 36.— Country school grounds, showing iarm oi 5 acres, 

of it. It is as much of an experiment and often far more useful to 
make an attempt to grow 100 bushels of corn, 2 bales ot cotton, 
300 bushels of potatoes, or 40 bushels ot wheat to the acre than to 
attempt to grow some crop new to the neighborhood and of doubtful 
adaptation. Some experiments on new things are very important 
educationally, but these should not require much ground. 



124 RURAL SCHOOLHOUSES AKD GROUNDS. 

Good experimental farming does not warrant rash experimenta- 
tion. The proper and wise use of the 5 acres suggested could thus 
be made to serve not only as an object lesson for all concerned, but 
to add much to the revenue for the upkeep and the upbuilding of 
the whole school property. If farmers can see that in their own neigh- 
borhood 5 acres well cared for will bring better returns than 20 
acres poorly cared for, one of the best lessons in community thrift 
and intelhgent farming will have been learned. Besides, the attempt 
to make the school farm a model for the neighborhood will be the 
best possible incentive and responsibility to lay upon a teacher 
whose specific business it is to be the moral, social, and intellectual 
leader in the district. 

The cottage for the teacher should be as far as possible a model 
of its kind for the neighborhood. A beautiful, well-planned, and 
sanitary cottage on the school farm would help in a definite way to 
stunulate the farmers to build better houses (not more expensive 
ones) and to reconstruct to a degree those already built. 

Whab sort of cottage should be built? The complete answer to 
this question must of course be left to the authorities of the dis- 
trict. There are, however, some suggestions applicable: 

1. It should be beautiful and as far as possible should harmonize 
with the general architectural treatment of the school building, if 
the latter is a modern type. An architect should be employed and 
the beautification of the useful be insisted on. 

2. It should include a living room, a bath room, a kitchen, a 
dining room, and a sleeping porch. The number of bedrooms will 
probably not exceed two, and these should connect with the sleeping 
porch. The plans for the kitchen should receive a great deal of 
care, especially with reference to modern conveniences. 

3. The sleeping porches should be models for the neighborhood. 
They should be carefully screened against flies and mosquitoes and 
should open from small dressing rooms, capable of being used as 
bedrooms when necessary. 

To most people in this country it will be a surprise to learn that 
several States, notably Washington,^ already have teachers' cottages 
in connection with many of their country schools. The cuts here 
introduced will give some idea of the nature and style of these 
cottages. The good example set by Washington, Nebraska, South 
Carolina, and other States should stimulate many others to progress 
in this direction. 

In this discussion the importance of cottages for men teachers on 
school farms has been emphasized, but without any intention of 
overlooking the need of them for women teachers. Very fre- 

1 The State of Washington now has 83 teachers' cottages (March, 1914) . 



teachers' cottages. 125 

quently a woman teacher has a hard time to find a satisfactory 
boarding phxce in the neighborhood, and for this reason alone wUl 
refuse to consider a second term in the school. Often the mere 
sck^ction of a boarding phice inv^olvcs opposition from others who 
were in the race for the teacher's preference. Those who have 
taught in rural schools know how essential to success this matter 
often becomes. 

Mre. Josepliine Preston, State superintendent of Washington, 
states in a recent communication relative to the development of 
teachers' cottages in that State: 

The teachers' cottages really came from the failure or refusal of one of the wealthiest 
districts in my county (when I was county superintendent of "Walla Walla County) 
to furnish a place for the teacher to board. As a result a cookhouse was moved into 
the yard and banked up by the side of the schoolhouse, and there the teacher lived 
all winter. Next year the district built a two-room cottage. Pioneering for teachers' 
cottages is over with us. A teacher must be happy and comfortable in her home life 
to give the best service in the schoolroom. 

Cottages for men teachers on school farms are, however, far more 
important, if we hope to increase the number of worthy men in the 
work of teaching in country districts. 

Plates 37 to 39 represent teachers' cottages in various States. 
Plates 27-28 are reproductions from photographs of .combination 
schools and teachers' cottages in Alaska. These are under the 
Alaska school service of the Bureau of Education. 

As has been said elsewhere, if the country school is to do the work 
now generally demanded of it, teachers' cottages are necessary in 
many parts of the country. There is no practicable way of making 
the district school the real social and educational center of a com- 
munity without keeping the schoolhouse open and the agricultural 
operations under supervision during the summer months. This will 
of course mean a change in the plan of hiring teachers, and, more 
especially, it will necessitate the employment of a greater number 
of men for rural school work. There are many difficulties in the 
way, and some of them may seem almost insuperable, but progress 
in country life demands these changes and in time they must be 
made. 



Chapter X. 

ONSOLIDATION OF RURAL SCHOOLS AND 
SOME SPECIAL NEEDS IN BUILDINGS FOR SUCH 
SCHOOLS. 



The relation of consolidation to sdioolhouse construction lias 
received less attention than the subject deserves. Many one-teaclier 
district schoolhouses now unfit for use should not be rebuilt, and 
would not be if some one who sees in time what should be done would 
tactfully present to the people of the community the possibilities in 
consolidation. 

A school building designed for the use of consolidated country 
districts will, of course, conform to the general hygienic and archi- 
tectural rules for buildings of the size required, and hence there is 
no need of repeating those details here. But there is need of special 
emphasis on certain points; for a consoHdated country school bears 
a pecuhar relation to the community it serves. 

In the first place, an assembly room is of special importance in 
these schools. The country children will find in assembly rooms the 
satisfaction of their desire for a wider social contact and companion- 
ship. Such rooms wiU also furnish opportunity for bringing parents 
together for entertainments, lectures, and civic gatherings. An 
assembly room is necessary for the morning exercises, and especially 
for chorus work. Music is much needed in such schools, and, as 
already pointed out, will appeal strongly to young people who have 
had to leave school. The difficulty of creating a school spirit and a 
neighborhood enthusiasm for general progress is greatly relieved by 
an assembly room. 

In the second place, a commodious, well-appointed, and well- 
lighted library room is especially important in a consolidated school, 
both by reason of the need for a common center of reading and refer- 
ence within the school and also because of the opportunity thus 
afforded to lend books and distribute them through the neighbor- 
hood. The books in a school library should be selected for both 
pupils and patrons, and every legitimate effort should be made to 
render them most useful. The library may thus serve as a sort of 
extension school in all that pertains to the interests of the commu- 
nity, in matters of agriculture, home-keeping, and sanitation, and in 
the dissemination of good literature. 
126 



CONSOLIDATION OF RURAL SCHOOLS. 12*7 

In the third place, manual-training rooms for both girls and boys 
are needed. This need has been emphasized elsewhere in this bul- 
letin, and it is only necessary to say hero that this larger community 
school should lead in attaching the school life to the homo life. In 
the term "inanual training" as used here are included all attempts 
at creative effort in any worthy field of useful homo acti^dty — cooking 
and sewing, canning and millinery, cabinetmaking and house plan- 
ning, practical electricity and plumbing, and every other manual 
activity helpful for country people to know. 

In the fourth place, some room or special building should be set 
aside for cxpc-rimc^ntal agriculture and gardening. The statement 
has recently been made that if the methods used in seed seloction and 
cotton culture on the demonstration farms in the South were univer- 
sally applied by the farmers of that part of the countr}'-, the cotton 
crop would bo doubled and would add $240,000,000 annual profits 
to the national income. This is only a sample of the opportunity 
these schools have. 

Fmally, emphasis should be laid on the nsed of an adequate supply 
of pure running water in order that lavatories, baths, and particu- 
larly a system of flushmg toilets and of septic disposal of sewage may 
bo installed in every consolidated country schoolhousc. This need 
is particularly characteristic of the consolidated school. A dignity 
and an importance never attached to the one-teacher school are 
attributed by the patrons to the consolidated school. It is their " big 
school." Even the country high school is rarely so close to the people 
as the consolidated school may become, because the high school does 
not touch so many homos direct^, and because the average farmer 
does not understand the high-school curriculum so well as that of the 
consolidated elementary school. 

Not long smcc the writer had an opportunity to travel over a por- 
tion of one of the Southern States in company with the several State 
officers of public education. One-teacher schools and also several 
central or consolidated schools were visited. Opportunity was 
afforded to talk with many farmers as we passed through the coun- 
try, and the one lasting impression brought away was the personal 
pride everywhere exhibited by these country people in their ''big 
schools." In all their conversation about them an eager interest was 
manifested, for the schools were opening to their children opportu- 
nities they themselves had never had. This sentiment is general. 
Along with this interest and trust in the school go the corresponding 
responsibility and prestige of the school in the community, because of 
which the community is inclined to adopt and employ what it finds 
in operation in the school. 

Now, it is possible to supply schools and farmhouses with running 
water at no great expense, although the farmers will have to be 



128 RUEAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GROUNDS. 

sliowii how this can be done, and actually see the plan in operation 
before they will take much interest in it. Not, only, therefore, for 
the sake of the children at school, but as an educational agency for 
the community, all consolidated schools should be supplied with the 
best of sanitary fixtures and with pure running water. 

Consolidation of schools does not always imply the necessity of 
the expense involved in transporting children from the abandoned 
districts to the central school. This is usually necessary only in 
sparsely-settled communities, where many schools have combined 
into one, or in rigorous climates, where walking would be dangerous 
for the children. In some parts of the country the question of trans- 
portation is often negligible, or nearly so. Grenerally speaking, if 
three schools in adjoining districts are combined into one, the chil- 
dren can still walk to school without danger or inconvenience. 

Obviously the cost will be less to transport the children of two 
schools to the consolidated school when the number of children in 
the two schools will not total more than the number which one 
teacher can handle effectively, for the cost of a teacher and the main- 
tenance of an extra building will more than pay the expense of public 
transportation. 

Experience shows also that a saving in cost of operation may be 
effected if several one-teacher schools, with a small enrollment in 
each, are combined into one central building, in which the work can 
be done more effectively with fewer teachers. Here, as in the case 
suggested above, the saving in salaries, fuel, insurance, and repairs 
may be more than enough to pay the cost of transportation. Such 
a possible saving will depend largely on the distribution of the 
children in the districts, on the condition of the roads, and on the 
opportunity afforded for securing transportation of the pupils at a 
reasonable cost. If the school authorities are compelled to furnish 
wagons: and if the combined distance is such that it is not possible to 
use fewer wagons than the number of schools abolished, the cost of 
transportation will easily exceed the saving. 

For all schools in which the number of teachers employed would 
be equal whether consolidation were undertaken or not, the expense 
of transportation would likely overrun any immediate saving due to 
consolidation. 

If new buildings are necessary in several single districts, and if 
instead of building a number of one-teacher schools the districts 
combine to build a central school, the immediate expense would be 
lessened. In the more densely populated rural districts many of the 
children from abandoned districts may be able to walk during a part 
of the year to and from the central school without serious hardship, 
and a definite saving in administration may be effected. Since the 
conditions are so diverse in different parts of the country, due to 



CONSOLIDATION OF RURAL SCHOOLS. 129 

climato, to lack of good roads, and to social distinction of one sort or 
another, the fmancial outcome of any scheme of consolidation must 
be very largely a local problem. 

A comparison of the immediate expense incurred for each school 
does not, however, always tell the chief part of the story. Sometimes 
consolidation actually costs more, dollar for dollar, and yet there 
may be a saving. The cost of schools should always be considered 
in the light of the results attained. A consoHdatcd school offers 
better opportunity for effective grading and classification of the pupils 
than a one-teacher school, but above all it gives each child more of 
the teacher's time for personal help and guidance. A teacher whose 
school hours must be divided among the pupils of seven or eight 
grades, with 25 to 30 recitations a day, can not use her time most 
helpfully to her classes. Especially is this true with the younger 
children, who make up a large proportion of pupils in country schools. 
Young children need adequate guidance and abundant drill in their 
work. This is possible only where the teacher is not overburdened 
with a great number of classes. It may easily happen, therefore, 
that a dollar spent for work in a one-teacher school, where all grades 
are represented, will not and can not bring as good returns educationally 
as one-half of that amount spent under better conditions in a con- 
solidated school. 

The consolidated school, Math fewer grades for each teacher but 
with larger opportunities for drill in essentials, opens therefore an 
encouraging prospect for some relief from this lamentable weakness 
in average rural communities. In this particular alone the added 
cost of consolidation, if there be any, may and ought to increase the 
educational efficiency of the schools to such a degree as to more than 
warrant the extra expense. This is just one phase of the increased 
advantages which may be derived from consolidation. In addition, 
more ground can be covered in all subjects, more specialization can 
be ' demanded of the teachers, better hygienic conditions can be 
secured, better supervision will be possible, and particularly the civic 
life of the community will be quickened in many ways. Wherever 
consolidation has been wisely handled the people have usually kept 
their children in school longer and more regularly. Many consoli- 
dated schools have thus been able to bring to the rural communities 
the advantages of one or two years of secondary training, and in 
some places a full high-school course, which was impossible before 
consolidation. Thus in a certain consolidated school far out in the 
country four teachers are teaching in one building all the children 
that before consolidation had required six teachers and six buildings. 
In addition to all the usual subjects of the grades, there are in this 
central school, which is presided over by a vigorous well-educated 



130 EXJKAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GROUNDS. 

man, classes in Latin, French, geometry, algebra, physics, and 
general history. Literary societies have been established and, per- 
haps most interesting of all, one teacher has regular classes in music 
and is training the children in chorus singing. A new piano, a product 
of community enthusiasm, dignifies the assembly room. In such an 
environment as this, civic life is engendered and local patriotism is 
fostered. 

In what has been said with reference to the advantages of the 
consolidated country school there is no desire to underestimate the 
value of the one-teacher school in the life of the community. With 
a good building, well arranged and well located, and with a well- 
paid teacher, the one-teacher school may serve its patrons and all 
the people within the district boundaries as well as a consolidated 
school. This excellence will depend on the initiative and wisdom of 
the teacher with whose rare leadership it is indispensably associated. 
Such a teacher is hard to find and hard to keep. But the consolidated 
school has opportunity for larger cooperation, and can more readily 
command the services of teachers who have proved themselves 



One consolidated country school in Wake County, N. C, has a 
cotton patch on the school grounds, planted and cultivated by the 
pupils. From the proceeds of the sale of the cotton grown on the 
grounds, furnishings and equipment were purchased for the school. 
On the second floor of the building there is a small but convenient 
assembly room in which is a good piano purchased by funds from 
the school-garden products. In this school several high-school sub- 
jects are taught, literary societies have been organized, and com- 
munity interest has been developed. It is worth a great deal more 
for a pupil to attend this school than a smaller school, even though 
the subjects taught be the same, for here he comes in contact with a 
larger neighborhood environment, enlarges his acquaintance, gets the 
help of better teachers, and is brought into heaUhy competition with 
more children of his age and general qualifications. The attitude of 
the neighborhood people toward this school and its work is interesting; 
they feel that it is their "big school" and that their children are 
honored in attending it. 



Chapter XI. 



SANITARY AND CONVENIENT WATER SUPPLY FOR 
COUNTRY SCHOOLS. 



The two most important sanitary needs of country schools, outside 
of the school building and its requirements, are sanitary toilets and a 
safe and abundant water supply. The results of the investigations 
of water supply for country schools detailed in Chapter III, as well 
as the results of other similar inquiries, make it clear that the drink- 
ing water furnished the children is often impure and dangerous. 
The experience of most country-school teachers will bear out this 
statement. 

Springs and farm wells are the usual sources of water supply. 
The springs are usually at some distance from the schoolliouse, and 
generally on lower ground. They are often poorly shielded from 
immediate contamination, and often receive the drainage from 
swampy ground, much-used pasture lands, or other defiled areas. 
In fact, they furnish merely slightly purified sm'face water. In 
general, they issue in open pools. These pools are depositories for 
leaves, dust, and dirt; insects find lodgment therein; various animals 
share m their use. Despite all these sources of pollution most people 
are brought up to beheve that no water is so pure as "spring water.'' 
To be sure, there are many springs which furnish fairly pure water, 
and many others which if properly cared for would be safe, but the 
number of these is small in comparison with the number that are 
unsafe. Bacteriological and chemical examinations made at fre- 
quent intervals are the only safe guides. Possibly of aU sprmgs 
the small intermittent, dribbling ones are the most dangerous, for, 
gettmg their supply from the immediate surroundings, they discharge 
surface drainage which has had small opportunity for pm'ification, 
either by filtration or by any other means. Springs in limestone 
regions are often subject to contamination by reason of the fact that 
the underground channels through which the water flows are oftsn 
connected with sink holes partly fiUed with water and used as a 
water supply for cattle, hogs, and other domestic animals. Water 
from such sources may be carried long distances with limited oppor- 
tunity for aeration, filtration, or pm'ification of any kind. 

All these facts, and others which might be mentioned, emphasize 
the need of caution in the use of springs as a source of water supply 

131 



132 RUEAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GROUNDS. 

for either country schools or country homes. Possibly the chief 
danger arises from the fact that any sort of spring is used and is 
generally poorly cared for. Further, many opportimities are afforded 
for pollution from dirty buckets and careless methods of transporta- 
tion before the water is put into a sanitary receptacle in the 
schoolroom. 

"When farm wells are depended on for drinking water, the school 
authorities rarely have any direct control over them and rarely 
make any investigations to determine whether the water taken from 
them is wholesome and safe. Many farm wells are improperly 
cared for and receive infected surface drainage. The logical con- 
clusion is that unsafe water from them is frequently supplied to 
school children. Just as in the case of springs from which water 
is carried in pails to the schools, the supply from such wells is open 
to serious objections. It is troublesome to have always at hand 
fresh water, and consequently children are often required to drink 
water which has stood for hours in an open bucket. Furthermore, 
dependence is placed on the boys to fetch the water, but they are 
not careful, and not infrequently return with a half pail of water 
more or less contaminated by their carelessness. 

Whenever attempts are made to furnish a weU. for these schools 
the objection is usually urged that wells at schools, because they 
are used only about half the year, are soon in bad condition and are 
more dangerous than farm wells. There is truth in this contention, 
but it is owing largely to the fact that the wells are improperly located 
and improperly constructed in the beginning. 

A dug well can be made a safe well, provided aU the water flowing 
mto it comes from a pure source; but it wiU cost more than many 
school ofhcers are willing to appropriate to make it safe. A driven 
well can often be sunk to a much greater depth, thus insuring better 
filtration; it can be so cased-in as readily to cut off surface drainage; 
and it frequently costs less than a properly constructed dug well^ 
hence the driven well should be preferred for country schools. 

There are, however, many erroneous notions concerning the 
purity of the water from a driven well. There is no difference 
between the puiity of the water from a driven well and of that from 
a properly guarded dug well of the same depth. If both are shallow 
and are so placed as to gather surface drainage from infected soil, 
they wiU be equally dangerous. The only advantage such a driven 
well would have over the dug well would arise from the fact that, 
unless the dug well were securely covered and the casing made water- 
tight to the lowest water Ime, surface infiltration into the driven 
well would be accomphshed more slowly and more opportimity 
would be offered for purification. The main source of supply would 
be the same in each case. 



tiANITARY AND CONVENIENT WATER SUPPLY. 133 

If a driven well is forced through an impervious stratum of hard 
clay or other material into a deep-lying water-bearing stratum 
which has no direct connection with the surface of the locality, and 
if the boring about the pipe where it is driven through the impervious 
stratum is securely sealed against infiltration from above or pressure 
from below, local insanitary conditions would have very little or noth- 
ing to do with the purity of the water obtained. The problem then 
would be to determine if possible the source from which the deep- 
lying water-bearing stratum gathered its supply. This might be 
from a long distance. A study of the geologic formation of the dis- 
trict would be necessary to determine where such water entered, 
for it must be remembered that all ground waters, whether near 
the surface or deep seated, were once surface waters and came from 
riiins or snows. A flowing or artesian well may be dependent on 
sm'face connections hundreds of miles distant. 

Sometimes, especially in mineral regions, a deep driven well wiU 
draw its supply from highly mineralized waters, and hence may 
furnish wat<>r disagreeable to the taste and even dangerous for 
drinkmg. Some mineral waters are wholesome and healthful, but 
it is always safe to know the chemical constituents of suspected 
water before using it freely. 

Ordinarily a driven well with a force pump is the safest well, 
other things being equal, that can be provided either at the farm 
home or at the country schoolhouse. Of course, it is not always 
possible to supply this kind of weU on account of the geologic forma- 
tion. But wherever a good water supply can be reached at a good 
depth, the driven well is safer, because there is less opportunity 
for defilement. 

When a driven well is properly placed and is saf&ciently deep to 
warrant a supply of pure water, a drinking fountain can be attached 
to the pump, as mdicated in figure 37. This will necessitate a good 
cement foundation about the pump and about the drinking fountain, 
ready means of carrying away the waste water, and such an attach- 
ment of the fountam to the pump that the pressure tank will be below 
the freezmg line and also deep enough to keep the water cool in the 
summer. Plate 43 represents such a fomitam in use. If the well 
is a driven one, an excavation sufficiently deep to place the tank 
and its connections well below the surface of the gi'ound may be 
made, and the attachment be made to the pump in the same fashion 
as shown in the cut.^ 

If a large pressure tank were substituted for the small one shown 
in figure 37, not only could a drinking fountain be supplied, but lava- 
tories, flush toilets, baths, laboratories, and a faucet for hose as pro- 

1 Thanks are due to the manufacturer and to State Supt. Francis G. Blair, of Illinois, for tt e privilege oi 
reproducing these cuts. 



134 



EUEAL SOHOOLHOUSES AND GEOUNDS. 



tection against fires, or for general garden use could be installed, 
because all that would be needed would be the necessary pipe con- 
nections. Naturally the drinking fountam, the tank, cr any outlet 
from this pressure tank could be located in the most coi ivenient and 
acceptable place. 

Figure 37 shows a cross section of the well with the pressure tank 
and valves and aU necessary fixtures. By operatmg the pump 



t!-" 




Fig. 37. — Cross section of drinking fountain attached to pump. 

handle the water is forced m at the bottom of the pressure tank, thus 
compressing the air at the top of the tank. With each stroke of 
the pump handle the tank receives more water, and the air at the 
top is more compressed. A check valve placed between the pump 
and the tank relieves the pump from aU back pressure. A self-closing 
valve is placed between the pressure tank and the supply pipe leading 
to the bubbling cup. To get a drink of water the child turns the little 
handwheel at the side of the bowl, which opens the valve below. 



SANITAEY AND CONVENIENT WATEE SUPPLY. 135 

The air pressure in the tank forces the water to bubble up through the 
bubbling cup. In the course of the process the waste water escapes 
through the outer pipe at II Yind out thi-ough the pipe T. It will be 
necessary to make these waste pipes water-tight, so that none of 
the waste water would fall back into the well. The waste pipe 
shown at T should be carried to a safe distance from the well, so as 
to prevent any possible infilti'ation. 

The same care should be exercised in carrying away drainage from 
a driven wcU as from an open weU, though, of course, the danger of 
rapid infdtration is not so great with the former, unless the wall 
casing and covering of the open well are made impervious as far down 
as the lowest water line. 

Experience has proved that individual drinking cups do not satisfy 
the demands for good sanitation at schoolhouses and that the only 
sanitary and convenient contrivance is some form of drinldng foun- 
tain. 

It is a common habit where individual cups are used, for one pupH 
to exchange his cup with another pupil and to feel it a sort of honor 
to have others drink from his cup. The children often carry their 
cups in their pockets, or expose them so as to receive the dust from 
the schooh'oom, and hi many ways they offer opportunity for con- 
tamination. Theoretically, individual cups would seem to satisfy 
all requirements, but in practice they do not, simply because neither 
the children nor the teachers, however careful they may be, can be 
certain that exchanges are not made and that the cups are kept in 
a clean condition. 

There is a simple form of fountain not dependent upon running 
water which is usable m country schools. This consists of a recep- 
tacle to hold a supply of water; the water is thrown up through the 
bubbling cup by the force of gravity, the waste running mto the 
bucket sho\vn below. There are several adaptations of this kind of 
foimtaiQ. The chief requirements are some means of keeping the 
water cool, a ready means of catching the waste water, a tight cover 
to prevent the entrance of dust and dii^t, and a possible adjustment 
of the bubbling cup to the various heights of the children. Naturally 
the water served in such receptacles must be taken from a pure 
source and be kept from contamination. It is possible, with this 
form of fountain, to boil and cool the water before it is introduced 
mto the receptacle and thus to insm'e its safety. The practice of 
putting lumps of ice du'ectly into the water is questionable, unless 
it is certam that the ice has been made from pure water. 

In practice these fountams are not always kept in sanitary condi- 
tion, not being thoroughly and satisfactorily cleaned often enough 
Despite everythmg done, a sediment from the water and possibl}^ 



136 



RURAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GROUNDS. 



also vegetable matter will gather on the sides of the receptacle, 
and make it insanitary. 

Fig. 38 represents a well incased with large glazed sewer tile 
and dug in a place where the dip of the impervious strata is clearly 
marked. Under such conditions it is evident that one side of this 
well needs more careful protection than the other. If an unpro- 




Irnperviou./ S+rotum 



+«.r-bcarinej 
Sand L Qravcl 



Fig. 38.— Well incased with glazed sewer tile. 

tected privy were situated on the side where the impervious strata 
lift toward the surface, there would be danger of infiltration, even 
if it were placed at a comparatively great distance, whereas, if it 
were placed at a reasonable distance on the other side, the danger 
would be small. This cut, of course, is not meant to represent usual 
conditions, but it does represent conditions met with at times in 
various parts of the country. 



Chapter XII. 

SANITARY PRIVIES FOR RURAL SCHOOLS. 



From the point of view of decency and sanitation the toilet facilities 
of great numbers of our country schools. and country homes are bad. 
This statement is based on data obtained from the teachers of two 
counties of each of 18 States representing as nearly as possible typi- 
cal conditions, from the report of a survey of farmhouses made by 
the various State agents of the Rockefeller Sanitary Commission for 
the Eradication of Hookworm Disease, from a report of a school sani- 
tary inspection of 3,572 district schools by the Pennsylvania State 
Department of Health, from an investigation made under the direc- 
tion of the joint committee of the American Medical Association and 
the National Council of Education, and from data gathered by various 
other more or less local surveys. 

By reference to Chapter III of this bulletin it will be seen that in 
631, out of 1 ,232 schools reporting, the toilets were adjudged insanitary, 
and that these 1,232 schools were probably typical of the whole 
country. The tabulations made of the results of the Pennsylvania 
survey make it clear that at least 50 per cent of the privies of the 
3,572 schools inspected were in an insanitary condition. The Rocke- 
feller sanitary commission found, as the result of a survey of 103,346 
farmhouses in 1 1 Southern States, that 50,637 of them have no privies 
at all. The report does not make specific mention of the sanitary 
condition of the privies that were observed, but it is probable that a 
large majority of them were and are insanitary. 

More than a himdi'ed photographs of both exteriors and interiors of 
rural school toilets, and careful notes made on the ground by the field 
agent of the joint committee of the National Council of Education and 
the American Medical Association make it clear that less than 5 per 
cent of the toilets of the 109 rural schools examined in Connecticut, 
New York, Vermont, Maryland, and New Jersey ^ are sanitary or even 
passably decent. One privy, typical of many, was f aii'ly new; and 
the schoolliouse was not old. The privy was within 3 feet of the 
schoolhouse. When examined in the summer of 1913 by the field 
agent of the joint committee, the privy was used by both boys and 
girls; it had no partition; the door had no lock. Eleven obscene 

I See p.. 29. 
40742°— Bull. 12—14 10 137 



138 EURAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GROUNDS. 

pictures were found on the inside. The feces fell on the surface of 
the ground and were exposed to flies; there was an offensive odor; 
and apparently no attempt was niade to clean, deodorize, or dis- 
infect the building. Many worse privies than this were found. 
By most teachers and officers of rural schools these data will not 
be questioned, because all who have worked in country schools and 
are famiUar with country life know by experience that the sanitary 
conditions ordinarily prevailing at country schools and farmhouses 
are very bad. Those who are engaged in the attempt to eradicate 
hookworm disease from our country have concluded that, although 
they may relieve and cure great numbers of people by the proper 
use of thymol, their work will never end unless sanitary toilets on 
the farm and at the school are constructed; for as long as the soil 
about homes and school buildings is continually contaminated, these 
depleting parasites will continue to infect and reinfect the children. 

But this is not all. We know that typhoid fever is a germ disease, 
and that insanitary toilets, through the agency of flies and infected 
water, are among the chief means of spreading this dangerous disease, 
in cold as well as in warm climates. Proof has been brought forward 
again and again to show that where absolute cleanliness in this regard 
prevails typhoid fever generally disappears. Doubtless other diseases 
also have their origin in the lack of sanitary privies, but it is surely 
enough for our purpose to know that this lack bears to these two dan- 
gerous diseases the close relationship of cause and effect. Considered 
merely from the economic point of view, typhoid fever costs enough 
each year to go a long way toward paying for the construction of 
sanitary and decent toilets at every farm home. 

Aside from the danger to health, common decency demands relief. 
Possibly there is no better test of the real sensibility of a people than 
that of cleanhness. Wherever you continually find filthy gardens, 
nasty barnyards, and unwholesome school conditions, you are certain 
to find crude and uncouth people. If country Hfe is ever to surpass 
the best of city hfe in comfort and refinement, and there is no funda- 
mental reason why it should not, these conditions must be changed, 
and country school teachers must play a large part in bringing about 
this change. Country schools must teach the truths of sanitation, and 
they must also set the example of building sanitary toilets and of 
keeping them in good condition. They must complete their teaching 
through demonstration of theory by fact, through cooperative activity 
with the people. 

The first question for practical consideration is this : What are the 
essential requirements of sanitary toilets for country schools ? 

The first requirement is that the toilets be convenient and easily 
accessible to the children, so that in cold or inclement weather there; 



SANITARY PRIVIES. 139 

shall bo attached to them no thought of exposure and no feeUng of 
reluctance. 

The location of toilets in country schools is a troublesome matter. 
If they are detached from the school building, they must ordinarily 
be removed some distance for the sake of both propriety and whole- 
somcness. But to locate these necessaries outside of the school 
building is to incur the difficulties connected with inconvenience, bad 
weather, and the dangers of neglect, and to invite indecent Hbcrties 
of various sorts. Even when washout or flush toilets are located out- 
side, it is difficult to prevent defilement, rough usage, and unchaste, if 
not immoral, practices in connection with their use. Although all 
these results do not necessarily follow outside location, the most rigid 
supervision is requisite to prevent these outbuildings from becoming 
insanitary and loathsome. 

When dry-vault toilets or those with septic tanks are used, it is 
best to locate them at a distance from the school building. As these 
are the only forms of sanitary toilets that the great majority of rural 
schools will be able to supply, the twofold problem of their location 
and construction must be considered carefully. The small size of the 
country school lot makes the problem more difficult. The usual 
half-acre lot can not well be divided by a hedge or fence into two 
equal parts, for such division would destroy all possibility of a fairly 
good playground. On the other hand, unless some screen is intro- 
duced, the lack of privacy in the use of toilets during the intermis- 
sion periods, when they are most used, is serious and indelicate, to 
say the least. Such lack of privacy often causes much reluctance, 
annoyance, and distress. 

The usual locations selected for these toilets are the two opposite 
corners in the rear of the school lot. Under no condition is it advis- 
able to make a single outbuilding, using one half for the boys, the 
other half for the girls. The buildings must be well separated. 
Screens of vines can be used to great advantage in most climates in 
summer, but as the main part of the school term is in the winter 
season, in cold climates evergreen shrubs so planted as to shield the 
buildings and to inclose the walks leading to them are more helpful. 
In the Southern States the English ivy stands the winters very well 
and is an ideal vme for covering such buildings and shielding the 
approaches to tliem. 

Basements afford the most economical and on the whole the best 
location within the buildings for flush toilets. These can be con- 
nected with sewers or with septic tanks elsewhere described. 

The second requirement for outside sanitary privies is to construct 
them in such a manner that the soil around and underneath the 
school building shall be kept free from contamination. This pre- 
caution is necessary on small lots; especially where a well furnishes 



140 KURAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GEOUNDS. 

drinking water. The ordinary privy set over an excavation in the 
soil that is not water-tight is dangerous, because of possible con- 
tamination of the water supply. Many rules have been given for 
regulating the distance from the well at which such cesspools may be 
located; but, obviously, no safe general rule can be formulated, for 
the character of the formation, the kind of soil, and the dip of the 
impervious strata will in all probability be different in each school 
lot. Sandy loam, with an impervious substratum dipping toward 
the well, would allow the passage of pollution through a long distance, 
especially in rainy weather. On the other hand, a clay soil, with an 
impervious stratum dipping in the opposite direction, might be safe, 
as far as infiltration is concerned, at a comparatively short distance 
from the well. Unless absolute assurance can be given that there is 
no danger of infiltration and that proper protection in every way 
will be afforded, a cesspool should never be allowed on the ordinary 
country school lot. 

In order to emphasize the seriousness of the cesspool form of toilet 
at country schools, the following extract from a recent letter by Dr. 
W. J. Kernachan, health officer of Lauderdale County, Ala., is given: 

In making a health survey of the rural school children of this county recently, I 
collected a sample of the water supplied to each school. An examination of these 
specimens by the State pathologist reveals the fact that 19 out of the 20 collected 
contained fecal matter. 

Dr. Kernachan does not state the source of the water supply, 
whether from house wells, springs, or wells on school lots. But it is 
evident that either at the schools or at the farm homes, or at both, 
the most elementary principles of sanitation are neglected. Open 
cesspools or even worse conditions must prevail to bring about such 
a condition of the water supply. 

The discussions that follow, and the figures introduced, have been 
prepared with the hope that they will afford country school officials 
and country people in general some suggestions in regard to the con- 
struction of more sanitary toilets, both at schools and at farm homes. 
No attempt has been made to illustrate all the possible forms of the 
sanitary privy, but a sufficient number of cuts and descriptions have 
been introduced to meet the varied conditions found in different 
parts of our country. Details with reference to plans, specifications, 
and cost are not given. Conditions are so diverse, and the cost of 
materials and labor varies so much in different parts of the country, 
that such details would not be of general value. Most country car- 
penters under direction of teachers or school officials can carry out 
these suggestions or adapt them to local conditions. 

The accompanying description of a form of dry privy, and the cut 
represented by figure 39, are taken from the leaflets sent out by the 
superintendent of public instruction of Virginia: 



SANITARY PRIVIES. 



141 



Two dry closets shall be constructed similar to that indicated. These closets shall 
be located at or near the opposite corners of the roar line of the school lot, and should 
bo at least 150 feet from the school building. Proper construction is of the greatest 
importance. The house should be well built, so as to be comfortable in winter, and 
have a sound roof so that the interior will always be dry. A liouse of this size should 
not have more than two seats. These ^ould have tight-fitting hinged covers that 
would stay down, except when in use. In a comer of the house there should be a bar- 




^andla.^ 



^^f7>)Ci)»^^ 



Fig. 39.— Form of dry privy recommended by Virginia State department of public instruction. 

rel of powdered surface soil that has been dried in the sun, and a scoop holding about 
a pint. The door should fit tightly, and any windows or apertures should be screened 
with fine wire so as to absolutely exclude flies. The construction under the seat may 
be of several kinds, any of which will be safe, provided a few points are observed. 

The "night soil" must be kept in some receptacle which can be kept dry and off 
the ground, and so constructed that it can be easily removed and cleaned. The 
contents of the receptacle must be protected against flies. These are the important 



142 RURAL SCHOOLHOXJSES AND GROUNDS. 

points. A box made of soimd, heavy timber, well braced, and tight enough to pre- 
vent leakage, will be good. It should be set close under the seat, and the opening 
back of it protected by a door which closes tightly enough to exclude flies. This is 
shown in the accompanying drawing. The floor of the box should be covered with 
about 4 ii.ches of dry earth before it is used. Each person using the closet should 
empty on the contents about a pint of the dried earth. If the earth is used in 
abundance, the material will in a short time become relatively inoffensive. When 
not more than half full, the box should be placed on a wagon and moved to some dis- 
tant field and the contents be dumped into a hole and covered with earth. 

The chief difficulty with this arrangement arises from the likeli- 
hood that the box will not be emptied often enough. If the box 
were set on runners, sled fashion, handling would be easier and more 
expeditious. In this case the box should be made particularly 
strong. From the sanitary point of view the chief requisites are the 
use of plenty of dust, complete exclusion of flies, and safe disposal 
of the contents of the box. 

One seat should be about 11 inches high, to accommodate the 
smaller children, the other about 15 inches high to accommodate the 
larger pupils. 

The district school officers must hire some one to remove and 
empty this box at regular intervals, without the necessity of the 
teacher calling his attention to the need of so doing. The teacher 
should inspect these buildings often and should see that all sanitary 
requirements are regularly carried out. 

Figure 40 represents a boys' double toilet with partition between 
the two seats. The seats are of different heights; one to accommo- 
date the smaller boys, the other the larger. Each stall is 4 feet 
wide, 5 feet deep, and 7J feet from floor to a line on a level with the 
eaves. Doors are to be 2 J feet wide and 6 J feet high, swingmg out. 
The seat boxes are each to be 2 feet in length from partition to 
dust bin, one 14^ inches high, the other 11 inches. The width of the 
seat board should be 15 inches. The dust bins should be 3 J feet and 
2| feet high, respectively; 2 feet wide from seat box to outer wall, 
and 16 inches from front to back. The ventilators above the doors 
are set to be sheltered by the wide eaves from driving rains and are 
to be carefully covered with a good quality of fine wire screen. The 
high windows should be fastened and are not to be opened. The 
floor and the roof must be made tight, both to protect against inclem- 
ent weather and to keep out flies. The lids of the seats should close 
automatically after use. The doors should be well made and hung 
with strong hinges to prevent sagging. It is always well to set the 
doors in such a way that they will close of their own weight. Good 
locks should be used instead of the ordinary hooks generally used on 
the doors of such outhouses. This will prevent the doors from 
being left open for the entrance of flies and the privies from being 
used by tramps when school is not in session. Ventilators should be 



SANITARY PRIVIES. 



143 



sot in the rear as in front. Either buckets or a dry pit, like that in 
figure 41, should bo used to receive the night soil. The height of 
the dust bins will prevent the boys from using them as urinals. 
Those in the girls' building may be made lower, if desirable. Some 
practicable scoop should be supplied for each bin. If preferable, an 
opening at the bottom of the bin can be made for taking out the dust, 




iiiifiA, 



Fig. 40. — ^Boys' double toilet, with partition between the seats. 



and a lid be fastened over the top. This would help to prevent defile- 
ments of any sort. 

The form of dry toilet shown in figure 41 will be satisfactory and 
sanitary only when sufficient dry loam dust is used to absorb all the 
moisture and to neutralize all odors and septic matter introduced. 
It will be observed that the pit is to be made of brick and concrete 
and hence will be practically water tight, to prevent leakage and 
also seepage from the ground. This form requires the selection of 



144 



RUEAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GROUNDS. 



sloping ground upon which to build the privy, otherwise it would be 
difficult to remove the night soil from the pit. The lids to the 
seats should be made to fit closely and to close automatically when 
the seats are not in use. The lid closing the opening of the pit in 



Ycrx+iUi+or 




Fig. 41 .—Dry toilet with pit. 

the rear should likewise be carefully made and adjusted, in order to 
prevent leakage from beating rains and also to prevent the entrance 
of flies. The pit should be cleaned as frequently as safety and 
decency dictate. Cleaning may be accomplished in this form of 
toilet by shoveling the night soil into a box placed in a wagon and 



SANITARY PEIVIES. 145 

then carting it to a safe distance in some neighborii)g field and bury- 
ing it. The night soil should never be deposited in a field where 
vegetables are grown, and always at a safe distance from a well or 
spring. 

A well-built bin at least 3 feet high should be located inside the 
toilet for thei purpose of storing a good quantity of dust where it is 
readily available. Sand should not be used. Dusty loam from dirt 
roads is excellent. In default of this, well-pulverized dry soil taken 
from a neighboring field will serve. Some objection might be raised 
to the height of the bin, on the ground that the smaller children 
could not readily and easily get at the dust. Although this height 
may be open to this objection, it will tend to prevent in the boys' 
privy a more serious difficulty, for if a lower bin is put in, some of 
the boys will use it for a urinal; furthermore, an outflow for the dust 
can be made near the bottom of the bin and the lid fastened. Then, 
too, this height will make it possible to provide more room for stor- 
age without encroaching too much on the floor space. Further- 
more, while it is useful to instruct all the children in this method of 
sanitation and to urge them to use the dust without fail, children will 
forget, and the teacher should see tliat dust is applied daily. Other- 
wise insanitary conditions will prevail. The school officers of the 
district should be charged with the duty of seeifig that the pit is 
cleaned as often as necessary, the teacher reporting to them. 

If two seats are made in each room, one should be about 11 inches 
and the other about 15 inches high. The seats and lids should be 
kept clean, and sanitary toilet paper should be provided. 

Figure 43 represents a slightly different form of dry toilet with a 
box for dust m the end, one seat 15 inches high for the larger boys, 
one 11 inches high for the smaller boys, and an open-air urmal trougli 
delivermg mto the vault. The urinal trough is shown 14 mches 
above the ground near the outlet and 2G mches at the upper end. 
This arrangement will give good drainage, as well as accommodate 
both the smaller and the larger boys. 

The partition between the seats will serve to give more privacy-. 
The door is made to swing either way; but it should be provided with 
an Ulterior latch, and a lock on the outside so that when school is 
not in session the buildmg could be kept locked to prevent it from 
being used by tramps or other passers-by. 

In this as in all other forms of dry toilets, the two essentials for 
sanitation are the regular use of dust to cover excreta and the safe 
disposal of the refuse. Small openings covered with fijie whe screen 
should be made for ventilation. These can be introduced in the front, 
near the roof. Every precaution should be taken to exclude flies aiid 




J. . 



'■X^^^^^^^;,^m^mmwmmM 



TtS^ 



Wmiww^^^m 






"^^^ 






ws^ 



Fig. 42. 




146 



!FiG. 43.— rry toilet witli pit, and open-air urinal trongh. 



SANITARY PRIVIES. 



147 



mosquitoes. The lids carrying the seats should be so placed as to 
closG automatically. 

Figure 44 suggests a form of dry toilet with buckets for catching 
the night soil, thus makhig it necessary to dispose of the collected 
material oftener and also making it possible to do this more expedi- 



xed Window 




Fig 4-i.— Dry toilet with buckets. 

tiously. Those who attempt to follow these suggestions should be 
sure that the buckets are large enough and high enough to reach 
sufficiently close to the seat to prevent defilement. 

These buckets should be removed and well cleaned before they 
are completly filled, and then 2 inches of dry loam dust should be 
thrown into them before they are replaced for use. 



148 



RITEAL SCHOOLHOtrSES AND GEOUNDS. 



One of the buckets is about 4 inches shorter than the other. This 
fact, of course, will suggest a corresponding difference in the levels 
of the two seats, the higher one being approximately 15 inches from the 
floor, the other about 11 inches. The lids of the seats should be made 
to fit and to close automatically. The trapdoor in the rear should 




Fig. 45.— Section drawing of privy shown in fig. 44. 

be kept securely fastened and be opened only when the buckets are 
to be emptied. The whole structure should be neatly built and 
carefully finished, dust bins included, as described in connection with 
figure 41. The drawing is meant to represent a buildmg 7 J feet high 
at the eave lines, 5 feet wide and 8 feet long, outside measurement. 



SANITARY PEIVIES. 149 

Separate stalls should be provided in this and other detached build- 
ings of a similar type, so that one side may be used by the small boys, 
the other side by the larger boys. The same suggestion should be 
followed for all detached buildings for girls. 

The form of toilet known as the ''L. R. S. privy" was devised by 
Dr. Lumsden, Dr. Roberts, and Dr. Stiles of the United States Public 
Health Service. One of the simplest forms of it is represented by 
figure 46. This form consists of a water-tight barrel with seat 
arrangement fitted over the top and a connecting T pipe leading from 
the barrel to an outside effluent tank made of a bucket or a barrel 
and securely covered to prevent mosquitoes and flies from entering it. 

The house covering this toilet will leave the small tank on the 
outside, which will be adjusted to the floor line as shown in the cut. 
This will necessitate placing the barrel in a pit or sinking ifc in the 
ground so that the top of it will be flush with the floor of the toilet 
building. It is important that the building be made proof against 
flies and mosquitoes and that it receive suflicient sunlight to keep it 
wholesome. The theory of the action of this toilet is exactly the 
same as that in any septic-tank disposal system. In the beginning 
the barrel should be filled with water up to the level of the outflow, 
then, to aid the action of the liquefying bacteria, a small cpiantity of 
well-rotted stable manure should be tlirown into the water. The 
action of bacteria upon the excrement is to liquefy it, and, as the 
water line in the barrel rises, this liquid will flow out into the outside 
tank, which can be carted ofl and emptied in a safe place. The simple 
form shown in this figure makes it possible for this toilet to be con- 
structed at a smaller expense than any other form of septic tank. 
It, however, necessitates the removal of the outside efiluent tank and 
discharging the material. Chemicals which would destroy the lique- 
f3dng bacteria should not be used. 

Figure 47 represents the same form of privy built in concrete so as 
to be permanent. In this form, however, instead of being movable 
the effluent tank is stationary, and the fluid must be pumped or 
drawn out and carried away in separate vessels. 

There is no reason why this form of toilet should not be connected 
with subsurface drains, like the other septic-tank disposals men- 
tioned further on. If the ground upon which the toilet is constructed 
is properly sloping and the soil sufficiently porous to permit the 
proper purification of the subsurface through which the drain tiles 
are spread, then the necessity of carrying away the liquid material 
would be obviated. Experiments made with this form of toilet prove 
fairly conclusively that the fecal matter is liquefied; that there is 
comparatively little odor about the builchng; that if the structure is 
carefully built both above and below ground it may be made safe 



150 



ETJEAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GEOUN"DS. 



Automatically 
clo/inq Lid 



Connectina 

"Pifxs 



E^PLOE/lTTA/^^ 




v^ /^^^ J j/^^jy jjjj^iUJ j/?/j / J/ l/r/h 




Fig. 46. 



mzmmm, 




mmwtM^'^ 



Aa Adaptation otThe L.t..5.?ii,ivY 
Fig. 47.— Forms of the L. E. S. privy. 



SANITARY PRIVIES. 



151 



from flies and mosquitoes; and that the labor of cleansing is slight 
compared with that of any of the dry-toilet systems.* 

The success of any form of septic-tank disposal depends to a large 
degree on the slope of the ground carrying the drain tiles, the nature 
of the soil, and the extent of gi-ound through which the drain tiles 
may be carried. If the ground is nearly level, the drain tiles must of 
necessity be placed too deep in the ground to insure rapid absorption 
and purification of the liquid. On sloping ground it is an easy 
matter to bring the tiles within 18 inches of the surface, or at most 




■ '^ Concrctc/Ioor; wall/, d"nd cover S +hicl<.'^\ 



Fig. 4S.— Section through concrete tants and seat; L. R. S. method. 

just below the freezing line. Thus located, the tiles discharge the 
liquid in reach of the active bacifceria, and the absorption and evapo- 
ration of the liquid thus discharged is increased. Moreover, if a few 
trees or shrubs are present in the absorption field, but far enough 
awaj^ to prevent the rootlets from choking the tiles, the capacity of 
the ground to care for the outflow will in general be increased. Natu- 
rally, a wet absorption field should not be chosen, for good dra'inage 
and rapid drying are essential. The drain tHes should not be laid in 
ditches with too much fall, for the efiiuent from the tank would rush 



> Thanks are due Dr. John A. Ferrell for the reproduction of these cuts from his bulletin on the sani- 
tary privy, issued by the North Carolina Board of Health. 



152 



RUEAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GEOUNDS. 



too quicMy to the lower ends of the tiles and hence overwork those 
parts of the absorption field. The fall should be such as to equalize 
as nearly as possible the demands on various parts of the absorption 
field. 

No one can be sure that material laden with typhoid germs wiJl be 
rendered inert by a septic tank of this sort, but if the absorption field 




Fig. 49. — Vertical section of tank and house. Kentucky sanitary privy. 

is of the right sort and is large enough and if the subdrainage is care- 
fully guarded, it is probable that there is less chance for infection 
than where sewers are used which open into small streams and infect 
water for long distances. This statement would not hold true if 



SANITAEY PRIVIES. 



153 



wells were so situated as to draw into them the seepage from the 

absorption field described above. (See Chapter XI on water supply.) 

Through the courtesy of Dr. A. T. McCormack, of Bowling Green, 

Ky., secretary of the State board of health of that State, the cuts 



nait 

AI»houqh the Ootitt 1/ /Km 
' Tank, it may be pf 







Fig. 50.— Horizontal section, Kentucky sanitary privy. 

(figures 49-51) of the latest form of the Kentucky sanitary privy are 
reproduced, with the accompanying description and a few suggestions 












Fig. 51.— Vertical section, Kentuciiy sanitary privy. 



regarding its construction and use. It is a pleasure to present this 
form of toilet, because it seems to come nearer meeting common con- 
ditions and health demands than any septic-tank disposal within the 



40742°— Bull. 12—14- 



-11 



154 RUKAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GEOUISTDS. 

reach of all communities. Attention is called to the urinal here 
introduced. As has been said elsewhere, the chief difficulty with the 
ordinary seat arrangement for boys' toilets arises from the lack of 
urinals, and as a consequence the boys are not careful to lift the 
under lid, and hence are almost sure to defile the seat itself. Conse- 
quently, they will next stand on the seat, and still more serious defile- 
ment ensues. Photographs of the interior of more than a hundred 
country school privies exhibit these defilements as a result of the lack 
of proper urinal facilities. The height of the urinal needs careful 
study. When properly placed for the smaller boys, it is likely to be 
too low for older ones. A narrow bench may be used to advantage. 
The other features of this toilet will be easily understood from the 
description which follows. 

These cuts represent the self-cleaning, fly-proof, septic-tank privy which the State 
board of health, after three years' experimental work, recommends for country and 
town homes, hotels, railway stations, schools, and other places where no sewer con- 
nections are possible. The details have been worked out with extreme care, and ii 
the directions are followed to the letter the privy may be placed within 10 feet of 
the house, but never inside of it. Toilets and bathrooms from the house may empty 
into the tank, but kitchen sinks should never do so on account of the grease. 

Pit and forms. — The size and depth of the excavation for the pit or tank are clearly 
shown in the cuts. The earth walls, if the digging is carefully done, will make the 
best outside forms for the concrete except where plank are needed above the surface 
of the ground as a form for the top of the tank walls. The inside forms can be made 
by any one of ordinary skill of any lumber which can be closely fitted so as to retain 
the moisture, and the lumber may be used over and over again for an entire com- 
munity if care is taken in putting it together \vith light nails foi* easy removal. 

Cona-ete. — The proportions for the mixture are: 1 part of good, fresh Portland 
cement, 2 parts of sand, and 4 parts of gravel or finely crushed rock, with enough water 
to bring it to the consistency of soft batter. For the tank of the size shown in the cuts, 
15 bags of cement, 1 cubic yard of sand, and 3 cubic yards of crushed rock or gravel 
will be required. The floor of the tank should go in as soon as the digging is dene. 
After this has set for 24 hours the forms should be tacked together and put in place, 
care being taken to have no particles of trash or dust under them where the walls and 
floors are to join. The concrete should then be poured in, tamping constantly with a 
thin-edge board next to the plank forms so as to give a smooth finish to the inside walls. 
After the walls have set for three. days the forms should be removed and the surfaces 
of the inside walls and floor coated over well with a mixture of cement about the con- 
sistency of thick cream, put on with a whitewash brush. The seat should tlien be 
put in place and the tank covered with IJ-inch or 2-inch lumber so as to permit con- 
crete to join concrete over the walls and entirely around the seat. The concrete top, 
which is to be the floor of the privy, should be reenforced with one or two layers of 
galvanized iron fence wire, and finished to a smooth surface which may be easily kept 
clean. 

Drains. — The drains of porous tile should extend in the aggregate about 100 feet, 
depending upon the character of the soil, should be laid below the frost line and away 
from the well or spring, should have a sufficient fall, should discharge entirely under- 
ground, and the surface over them should be utilized for a flower bed or rose garden, 
to be benefited by the constant irrigation and fertilization. 

Filling and inoculating the tank. — Before the house is put in place and bolted down, 
the tank should be filled with water and five or six shovelfulls of old, well-rotted 



SANITARY PRIVIES. 155 

stable manure put in to inoculate the fluid with the liquefying germs upon which 
everything depends, a supply of toilet paper should be provided, and it is ready for use. 

Aftermanagement. — A bucket of water should be poured through each hole in the 
seat and one through the urinal every day in order to break up the mass of fecal matter 
and toilet paper. The floors, and especially the urinals, should be well scrubbed 
daily, and care should be taken that the lids close down automatically after use. 

If care is taken to make the tank water-tight, it will never need to be filled but once, 
and if no disinfectant of any kind is ever used except camphor balls in the urinals 
if the water is poured in daily as directed, and if the pipe from the urinal extends 
well into the water, there should be practically no odor, and in years there will be 
little accumulation of solid matter at the bottom of the first tank. 

The accompanying cuts (figures 52, 53, and 54) of a septic-tank 
disposal plant designed for a washout inside toilet for a country 
residence or a small one-teacher country school, and its description, 
are reproduced through the courtesy of Prof. C. A. Haskins, engineer 
for the State Board of Health of Kansas: 

The septic tank shown (figure 53) is constructed of concrete, but it may be built 
of brick or masonry just as well. If of concrete, the mixture should be 1: 3: 5, mixed not 
too wet, and well tamped into place. If the tank is built of brick, the brick should 
be laid in rich cement mortar, all joints well filled, and the cross wall bonded in with 
tlxe side walls at every alternate course. In either case, after the mortar or concrete 
has had time to "set," the excess earth from the excavation should be well tamped 
around the sides, and the inside of the tank should be plastered with ^-inch coat of 
rich cement mortar. The inlet and outlet pipes and the siphon should be carefully 
set to tlie proper elevation shown on the drawing. It is important that the inlet and 
outlet pipes extend down below the water level to escape clogging by the scum which 
forms on top of the sewage. The top may be of concrete or wood, although wood is 
preferable on account of the fact that it may be so constructed that it may be all lifted 
off, affording ingress to the tank in case of stoppage. Ordinary 2 by 12 inch cypress 
lumber, with suitable 2 by 6 inch braces, are often used for roofs, with hinges on one 
side and a hasp on the other, for holding it closed. In case concrete is xised for the 
roof, a manhole should be placed in both the tank proper and the dosing tank for 
ingress to the tank. In any event, the ventilating pipe should be in place as shown. 
The siphon is necessary to the proper working of the system, for if the sewage is allowed 
to trickle out into the drain tile as it comes into the tank from tlie house, most of it 
will leach out into the soil at the first few open joints, causing the ground there to 
become sour and foul smelling, and the full efficiency can not be obtained. With 
the siphon working properly, the eflluent will be held in the dosing chamber until 
tlie proper elevation is reached, when it will all be rapidly discharged into the drain 
system. 

In order that a more complete description of the method of opera- 
tion of this form of siphon might be furnished than was given in the 
original published article (see Bulletin of the Kansas State Board of 
Health, No. II, November, 1913, pp. 215-219), a letter asking for 
this information was sent to Prof. Haskins. The following excerpt 
from his reply (December 17, 1913) will make its action clear: 

The siphon operates in the following manner: First, the siphon is set in the dosing 
chamber of the tank exactly to its proper position. Then the trap is filled with water, 
both legs holding water level with the top of the small \eg. The bell is then placed 
over the top of the long leg. As the water rises in the tank it reaches the bell, con- 



156 



KURAL SCHOQLHOUSES AND GROUNDS. 




\5ur/dce. ofQroatyd 



4- 5«.wcr 
4^ from H<9ci/c 






«• 



mclr 



.-Hie 



3"5ab-irriqa+ion 



5ep+icTank| 
i/frlbu+ina 

j> /or/o-hjr<E ^ Wood or 



'//V' ;' -J- 0^\^ ^' "c'<^r^o'"- Grave I 
M': .■;>\\\'7AETHodopLAY«/i& 

,A^ jVj.f{(]>R,AI/sTlL.B I/iTjGHTSoiU/ 



e.x+en-'ion 




DlSTRIBOTlOAi 

Box 



'~\ /^ Lea+her Washer 



5lODQE Cl_eAAlOOT VAwUVE 



Tig. 52. 



hou/e. Uid with 




Fig. 53. 



-^z 




Fig. 54. 
Septic tank. Sewage-disposal plant for single residences and country schools. 



SANITARY PRIVIES. 157 

fining a certain volume of air in the bell and the long leg of the trap; and as the water 
continues to rise, the confined air starts to push downward the column of water in the 
lonji; leg to the trap toward the bend at the bottom. During the period of filling the 
tank the column of water in the short leg is slowly spilled out by the pressure of the 
air and the colunm of water in the long leg, so that when the predetermined discharge 
level in the tank is reached we have the water line (the compressed-air column being 
behind it) just at the flattened bend at the bottom of the trap, the water line inside 
the bell being near the top of the long leg. Hence a balance of water columns exists, 
if no further water is admitted to the tank. This equilibrium is upset if a small 
amount of water is added to the tank, so that the air compressed in the trap by the 
water exjKiuds at the bend at the bottom and finds its way into the waste-outlet 
tiles, while the original pressure exists in the tank. As soon as this air escapes, the 
water in the bell suddenly rises and the siphon is set into action, the water in 
the tank being drawn rapidly down and discharged. When the water reaches the 
bottom of the bell at the discharge, air is introduced, breaking the vacuum, and a 
complete cii-culation is established and the siphon is completely air-locked again, 
the trap is primed, and everything is ready for a second dose to' be held back until 
the high-water line in the tank is again ready, and the discharge operation is repeated. 

The connection from the house to the tank should be of 4-inch vitrified sewer pipe 
of the bell-and-spigot type. It should be laid to an even grade and alignment, and 
great care should be taken to see that all the joints are well filled with cement mortar, 
with a full bevel. This is especially important if the line passes through a grove of 
trees or through a swamp or low land — in the first case to prevent the entrance of fine 
roots, which will in time clog the pipes; and in the second case, to prevent the infil- 
tration of ground water. 

The pipes for the distribution system should be sound, hard-burned, 3-inch agri- 
cultural drain tiles, in 1-foot lengths. If necessary to reach a desii'able location for 
the sub irrigation system, the siphon may discharge into a 4-inch sewer, laid the same 
as the house connection, but on a grade of not less than 2 feet in 100 feet, to a diverting 
box or manhole, out of which the drain tile may lead in one or more lines. They 
should be laid at a depth of from 1 foot to IS inches below the surface of the ground, 
and should be laid on a grade of 3 inches in 100 feet. This matter of grade, or "fall," 
should receive careful attention, since if the grade is too great the lower end of the 
pipe will receive more than its fair proportion of sewage, while if the grade is too 
email the upper end will receive too much. 

The length of this 3-inch pipe should be proportioned according to the nature of 
the soil. If the soil is quite open and sandy, approximately 200 feet will be sufficient 
for the sewage from an ordinary residence, while if the soil is of a closer texture, 300 
or 400 feet, or even more, will be necessary. The system is not well adapted to very 
tight and retentive clay soils, though it has been used successfully for a time in soils 
of this character. A desirable, though somewhat costly, modification that has been 
successfully used in tight soils consists in digging the trench about 4 feet deep, filling 
the lower 3 feet or so with cinders or gravel, and then laying the 3-inch distribu- 
tion tiles at the surface of this porous filling material and covering them with about 
a foot of earth. The total length of distribution tiles deemed necessary for any par- 
ticular installation may be laid in one or more single lines extending out from the 
dosing chamber, or a single line may be divided into two or more branches, as indi- 
cated in the drawing. In case more than a single line is used, great care should be 
taken to see that each line receives its fair- share of the septic-tank effluent. Where 
the natural slope of the ground is steeper than the grade required by the distribution 
lines, these may be zigzagged down the hill. 

It should be the expectation that once in one to four or five years the tank will re- 
quire cleaning out, the freqaency depending largely upon the character of the sewage. 



158 RUEAL SCHOOLHOUSES ANT> GROUNDS. 

The sludge taken from the tank at these cleaning periods will be found to be relatively 
small in amount, and may be best disposed of by running it into a trench or furrow 
and covering it over with soil. This cleaning out should be done in the fall of the 
year, if possible, as at this season the sludge in the tank possesses less odor and is less 
objectionable to handle than at other times. The sludge clean-out valve shown in 
the illustration may be built for this purpose, but it is not essential, as an ordinary 
"pitcher" pump may be used. 

It should also be expected that every few years the distribution tiles will have 
to be taken up and relaid in a new trench a few feet away from their former position. 
This is simply because there is a gradual choking up of the open spaces in the soil, 
with the result that the soil immediately adjacent to the pipes may become water- 
logged and sour. 

Particularly for those States where the rainfall is such that the water of the sewage, 
as well as its fertilizing constituents, has an appreciable value, the disposal schemes 
outlined above may have a considerable economic as well as important sanitary value. 
It is quite possible by this method to maintain in the driest region a large, well- 
fertilized and well-watered lawn. The process should be carried on entirely without 
odor, though, of course, the septic tank should be located at some little distance from 
the house — say 100 feet or more — if possible. Especially, the disposal plant should 
not be near any open well which is used as a source of water supply. 

This plant is automatic in operation, but, nevertheless, will require some care. It 
should be carefully inspected occasionally to see that the pipes are not stopped up, 
that the tank itself is not completely sludged up, and that the siphon is working 
properly. However, if the plant is-carefully built, according to the drawing and the 
directions included herein, it should give good general satisfaction. 

Recently a chemical toilet has been developed which is designed 
for indoor use where flushing toilets can not be introduced on ac- 
count of the lack of water supply or of sewage disposal. The closet 
is constructed, as will be seen by the illustrations (Pis. 41 A-B) of a 
steel cabinet finished to resemble wood. This incloses a galvanized 
container with a lid and the necessary handles for removing it and 
carrying it away. The toilet is prepared for use by introducing into 
it a chemical which is claimed to be " a powerful germicide, deodorant, 
and disinfectant." A circulation of air and an exhaust are pro- 
vided, so that no odors escape. Such a toilet as this, if really prac- 
ticable, may be introduced into a special room in a country school- 
house and the excreta may be carried away and deposited where no 
danger of odors or infection is posssible. This device has perhaps 
not yet been tested for a sufficient length of time to warrant the 
statement that it will satisfy all sanitary conditions, but it is worthy 
of careful consideration. 



APPENDIX. 

A HEALTH PROGRAM FOR COUNTRY CHILDREN. 



In their efforts to improve hygienic conditions in the schools and 
in the community, teachers frequently find som.^ assistance in a 
simply worded health program or creed for the individual child to 
apply to his own experience. The following is not intended as a 
final or exhaustive statement of such a program, but it is believed 
that by means of it the rural teacher may be able to drive home 
certain fundamentals in hygiene and sanitation that will ultimately 
mean much for good health in home, school, and community and 
make a direct contribution to the movement for better schoolhouses 
in the country. It is assumed that the teacher will select such of 
these items as seem most useful for her purpose and supplement 
them with illustrative examples from real life. 

LEST I FORGET. 

I believe that good health and a strong body are essential, and that the only real 
wealth is good health. In order that I may be strong and well, therefore, I will 
endeavor to observe the following rules of health: 

1. I will keep my teeth clean by using my toothbrush every day. 

2. I will drink no coffee or tea before I am 20 years of age, and no sort of alcoholic 
stimulants at any time in my life, unless ordered to do so by a physician. 

3. I will chew my food thoroughly. 

4. I will sleep at least nine hours each night in well-ventilated rooms winter and 
summer, or in an open-air sleeping porch. 

5. I will bathe my whole body at least once a week and keep my face, hands, and 
nails clean. 

6. I will strive daily to acquire a habit of self-control, habits of anger being not 
only wrong but unheal thful. 

7. I will strive to help make my home as clean and sanitary as possible, especially 
to prevent contamination of the milk and drinking water. 

8. I will do all I can to prevent the development of flies about the house in which 
I live, since they carry the germs of typhoid fever and other diseases. 

9. I will do all in my power to prevent mosquitoes from breeding in or about the 
house I live in. I will bury or destroy all old tin cans, barrels, or other vessels wliich 
catch and hold rainwater and offer a place for mosquitoes to breed. I will help to 
drain all stagnant pools near my home or put kerosene oil on them once every 10 days 
during summer. 

TO. I will try hard to kill all rats and mice about my home, since they are both 
troublesome and dangerous, carrying, among other things, the bubonic plague, one 
of the most deadly of all diseases. 

11. I will do all in my power to help secure sanitary toilets throughout the whok: 
neighborhood. 

159 



160 EUEAL SCHOOLHOUSES AND GEOUNiOS. 

12. I will strive to keep the backyard of my house as clean and tidy as a front yard 
should be kept. 

13. I will take no patent medicine, and will do all I can to teach people that most 
of it is both useless and harmful. 

14. I will keep my personal life clean and pure, for it is a duty I owe to myself 
and to all who live now and may live in the future. 

15. I will take good care of my eyes, taking special pains not to strain them by 
dreading at night or in bad light. 

16. I will be careful about spitting, since disease is often spread in that way. 

17. I will do all I can to help make our schoolhouse more attractive and to keep it 
clean and neat at all times. 

18. I believe the best investment I can make for myself and my fanoily is to invesi 
in good health, a good education, and a clean moral life. 

19. I will strive with all my power to make country life more healthful, more 
enjoyable, and more beautiful. I believe life in the country is finer and better 
than life in any city. 



INDEX. 



Air, good, necessity, 2. 

Alabama, sanitary survey, 23-2G. 

American Medical Association, report on health ])rol)lems, 1-5. 

Arkansas, sanitary survey, 23-26. 

Basements, country schoolhouses, 56-59. 

Blackboards, country schoolhouses, 22, 28-30, 50-52. 

Buildings. See Schoolhouses. 

Bureau of Education. See United States Bureau of Education. 

Children, country, health program, 159-160. 

Classrooms, size, country schoolhouses, 31-32. 46-47. 

Cleanliness, influence on physical health, 2. 

Cloakrooms, country schoolhouses, 33, 53, 117-118. 

Colorado, orientation of schoolhouse; sanitary survey, 23-26. 

Connecticut, sanitary survey, 28-33. 

Consolidation of rural schools, relation to schoolhouse construction, 126-130. 

Cooper & Bailey, plan of model rural school, 81. 

Cooperative work, teachers and pupils, 3. 

Corn clubs, work, 12. 

Cottages, teachers, 122-125. 

Country school program, relative to equipment, 10-16. 

Curriculum, country schools, 13-15. 

Drinking fountains, construction, 133-134. 

Equipment, relative to country-school program, 10-16. 

Farm life, conditions in the United States, 7-9. 

Farms, country school, experimental work, 123-124. 

Felt, J. H., jjlans for school buildings, 89. 

Floors, construction, country schoolhouses, 48-49; hygienic conditions, 20. 

Furniture, hygienic, 3. 

Grounds, hygienic condition, 18-19; location of, 3; sanitary survey of five States, 28. 

Harvey, Mrs. M. T., remodeling of Porter School, 120-121. 

Haskins, C. A., on septic tanks for toilets, 155-158. 

Health problems, report, 1-5. 

Heating, 33. 

Hygiene, progrdmforcoim try children, 159-160; typical rural schoolhouses and grounds, 
17-33. 

Indiana, sanitary survey, 23-26. 

Insects, screening against, 3. 

Ittner, W. B., and model of floor plans, 77, 86. 

Janitors, service, 21. 

Kansas, sanitary privies for schoolhouses, 155 — 158. 

Kentucky, sanitary privies for schoolhouses, 153-155. 

Kernachan, W. J., on contamination of water supply, 140. 

Libraries, country schoolhouses, 53-56. 

Lighting, hygienic conditions, 19-20; necessity of good, 2-3; unilateral, country school- 
houses, 59-61. 

Location, country schoolhouses, 34-37. 

Manual training rooms, necessity for, 44, 127. 

161 



162 INDEX. 

Maryland, sanitaiy survey, 23-26, 28-33. 

Minnesota, sanitary survey, 23t-26. 

Missouri, sanitary survey, 23-26. 

Montana, sanitary survey, 23-26. 

National Council of Education, report on health problems, 1-5. 

Nebraska, sanitary survey, 23-26. 

New Jersey, sanitary survey, 28-83. 

New York, location of schoolhouses, 36-37; sanitary survey, 28-33. 

North Carolina, rural school farm, 12; sanitary survey, 23-26. 

North Dakota, sanitary survey, 23-26. 

Oklahoma, sanitary survey, 23-26. 

Orientation, schoolhouses, 38-41. 

Pennsylvania, district schools, summary of sanitary inspection, 26-27; sanitary 

survey, 23-26. 
Plans, rural schoolhouses, 62-114. 
Porter School, Missouri, reconstructing, 120-121. 
Preston, Josephine, on the development of teachers' cottages, 125. 
Privies, sanitary, country schools, 137-158. 
Remodeling, country schoolhouses, 115-121. 

Rockefeller Sanitary Commission for the Eradication of Hookworm Disease, work, 22. 
Rural life, some conditions and opportunities, 7-9. 
Schoolhouses (countxy), basements, 56-59; blackboards, 50-52; cloakrooms, 53, 

117-118; doors, 52; floors, 48— i9; general considerations regarding beauty, 42-43; 

hygienic condition, 17-19; libraries, 53-56; orientation, 38-41; plans and models, 

62-114; remodeling, 115-121; sanitary privies, 137-158; sanitary survey of five 

States, 31-33; size of classrooms, 46-47; unilateral lighting, 59-61; workrooms needed, 

43^6. 
Schoolrooms, picture moldings, 52; walls, 49-50. 
Sewage, disposal, 2. 
Sites, country schoolhouses, 34-37. 
Social and moral welfare, 3-4. 
South Dakota, sanitary survey, 23-26. 
Southern States, consolidation of rural schools, 127. 
Teachers (rural schools), cottages, 122-125; home and farm, 15-16; letter from U. S. 

Bureau of Education; preparation for rural school work, 10-13. 
Tennsessee, sanitary survey, 23-26. 
Thermometers, lack of, 22-23. 

Toilet facilities, 22; sanitary survey of five States, 28-30. See also Plans. 
Transoms, country schoolhouses, 52. 
Transportation of children to school, 128. 
United States Bureau of Education, letter to rural school teachers, 17-18; plans and 

instructions for constructions of rural schools, 4. 
Vermont, sanitary survey, 28-33. 
Virginia, sanitary privies in schoolhouses, 140-142. 
Vision. See lighting. 

Wake County, N. C, consolidated country school, 130. 
Walls, country schoolhouses, construction and color, 49-50. 
Water supply, 2, 21, 131-136; sanitary survey of five States, 28-29. 
West Virginia, sanitary survey, 23-26. 
Windows, 32-33. 

Workrooms, lack of, 23; necessity for, country schoolhouses, 43-46. 
Zimmerman, V. C, and plan of school building, 94. 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN, 1914, NO. 12 PLATE 2 




A. MANUAL TRAINING UNDER DIFFICULTIES. 







,4 .^S, is^- 



^itt^P J|;|i'- 



5. FOREST SCHOOL STUDENTS AT WORK IN THE LATH HOUSE IN THE RAJA 
YOGI SCHOOL, POINT LOMA, CAL. 



BUREIAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN, 1914, NO. 12 PLATE 3 




.1. CORNER OF KITCHEN, RURAL SCHOOL IN LOUISIANA. 




B. DOMESTIC SCIENCE, RURAL SCHOOL IN LOUISIANA. 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



5ULLETIN, 1914, NO. 12 PLATE 4 







^m^n^ ^^p^-'^^p^ii-- 






-^^wp 



^. NEGRO SCHOOL, CAROLINE COUNTY, VA. A PRIZE GARDEN. 




B. SEWING. INDUSTRIAL WORK IN VIRGINIA COLORED SCHOOLS. 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN, 1914, NO. 12 PLATE 5 




A. FRONT VIEW, MODEL 1. 




B. REAR VIEW, MODEL 1. 




C. FRONT AND SIDE VIEW, MODEL 5. 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN, 1914, NO. 12 PLATE 6 




A. INTERIOR VIEW OF MODEL 1. 




B. INTERIOR VIEW, MODEL 2. 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



5ULLETIN, 1914, NO. 12 PLATE 7 




.1. SIDE VIEW OF MODEL 3. 





.*.. • 



I 



INTERIOR VIEW OF MODEL 3. 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN, 1914, NO. 12 PLATE 




A. INTERIOR VIEW, MODEL 5. 




B. BASEMENT PLAN, MODEL 5. 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN, 1914, NO. 12 PLATE 9 




J. MODEL 6. 



I 




B. FRONT VIEW, MODEL 4. 




C. GROUPING OF WINDOWS, MODEL 4. 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN, 1914, NO. 12 PLATE 10 





PERGOLA AND OPEN-AIR THEATER, MODEL 6. 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN, 1914, NO. 12 PLATE 11 




.1. A SOUTH CAROLINA RURAL SCHOOL. 













'•■■fl^jl^^^^^^BBBBI 


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B. BLACKBERRY-HOLMBERG SCHOOL, DISTRICT NO. 1, ITASCA COUNTY, MINN. 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



ULLETIN, 1914, NO. 12 PLATE 12 






VIEWS OF RURAL SCHOOL AT COCOANUT GROVE. FLA. 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN, 1914, NO. 12 PLATE 13 




A. MASONVILLE DISTRICT NO. 13, YAMHILL COUNTY, OREG. 




B. HIGH HILL SCHOOL, DARLINGTON COUNTY, S. C. 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



5ULLETIN, 1914, NO. 12 PLATE 14 




A. RURAL SCHOOL AT MARBURY, ALA. 




S. COMET SCHOOL, ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY, VA. 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN, 1914, NO. 12 PLATE 15 




.1. DISTRICT NO. 10, BOULDER COUNTY, COLO. 




B. LOGANSPORT, W. VA. 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



5ULLETIN, 1914, NO. 12 PLATE 16 




A. DISTRICT NO. 28, MOWER COUNTY, MINN. 




B. LOS PADILLAS, BERNALILLO COUNTY, N. MEX. 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN, 1914, NO. 12 PLATE 17 




J. DISTRICT NO. 31, BOULDER COUNTY, COLO. 




B. POTTER COUNTY, PA. 
The ever-present cupola, which the new rural school is avoiding 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN, 1914, NO. 12 PLATE M 




A. A RURAL SCHOOLHOUSE ON THE PLAINS, DISTRICT NO. 23, CUSTER COUNTY, 

MONT. 




B. LACK OF SIMPLICITY MARS THE EFFECT OF AN OTHERWISE ATTRACTIVE 

BUILDING. 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN, 1914, NO. 12 PLATE 19 




.1. MODEL RURAL SCHOOL, CORYELL COUNTY, TEX. 




/?. THE NEW WILLOW DISTRICT SCHOOL, MENDOCINO COUNTY, CAL. BUILT 

IN 1911. 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN, 1914, NO. 12 PLATE 20 




A. MODEL RURAL SCHOOL, KIRKSVILLE, MO. 




£. MACHINERY IN BASEMENT OF MODEL RURAL SCHOOL, KIRKSVILLE, MO. 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN, 1914, NO. 12 PLATE 21 




A. REAR VIEW (SEE ALSO PLATE 1). 




B. SIDE AND REAR, CROSS ROADS SCHOOL, MACON COUNTY, ILL. 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN, 1914, NO. 12 PLATE 22 




A. CLASSROOM, SHOWING LIGHTING, CROSS ROADS SCHOOL. 




B. FRONT OF CLASSROOM, CROSS ROADS SCHOOL. 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



iULLETIN, 1914, NO. 12 PLATE 23 




A. LOOKING INTO LIBRARY AND CLOAK ROOMS, CROSS ROADS SCHOOL. 




B. SEATING ARRANGEMENT, CROSS ROADS SCHOOL. 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN, 1914, NO. 12 PLATE 24 




A. "THE OLD AND THE NEW." DISTRICT NO. 9, CANANDAIGUA, N. Y. 




B. CLASSROOM IN CANANDAIGUA SCHOOL. 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



SULLETIN, 1914, NO. 12 PLATE 25 




.1. CORNER OF THE HALL, NO. 9, CANANDAIGUA, N. Y. 




B. LIBRARY, WITH FIREPLACE, NO. 9, CANANDAIGUA, N. Y. 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN, 1914, NO. 12 PLATE 25 




A. A RURAL SCHOOL PLAYGROUND. 




B. WINDOWS AND LIGHTING, AUDUBON OPEN-AIR SCHOOL, LOUISVILLE, KY, 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



5ULLETIN, 1914, NO. 12 PLATE 27 




.4. UNITED STATES SCHOOL, ARCTIC ALASKA. 




P. UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT SCHOOL ON LITTLE DIOMEDE ISLAND, 

ALASKA. 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



iULLETIN, 1914, NO. 12 PLATE 28 




A. SCHOOL AT CHOGIUNG, WESTERN ALASKA. 




B. A FORMER ONE-ROOM SCHOOL IN MINNESOTA THAT BECAME A TEACHER s' 

COTTAGE. 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN, 1914, NO. 12 PLATE 29 




.1. PORTER SCHOOL. MAY 1, 1913. AN OLD BUILDING RENOVATED. 




n. PRIVY AT PORTER SCHOOL IN AUGUST, 1912. LATER REPAIRED. 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN, 1914, NO. 12 PLATE 31 



^^^^^^^^lE^ 1 




V f-sS 




^p^^ 


^ i^.:t jL-n_- 





SOUTH WALL OF PORTER SCHOOL ON FEBRUARY 20, 1913, SHOWING HOW 
CROSS LIGHTS ARE AVOIDED. 




B. ANOTHER INTERIOR VIEW OF THE REMODELED SCHOOL, MAY 1, 1913. 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



iULLETIN, 1914, NO. 12 PLATE 32 




A. SOUTH SIDE OF BASEMENT, SHOWING IMPROVEMENTS. FEBRUARY 20, 1913. 




B. THE MODERNIZED BASEMENT OF PORTER SCHOOL. 



5UREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN, 1914, NO. 12 PLATE 34 




A. CLASSROOM, SILAS WILLARD SCHOOL, GALESBURG, ILL. 



i 


^ 


— ^ 


i 
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£. CLASSROOM, SILAS WILLARD SCHOOL, GALESBURG, ILL. 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN, 1914, NO. 12 PLATE 35 




.1. CORRIDOR, SILAS WILLARD SCHOOL, GALESBURG, ILL, 




B. AUDITORIUM AND GYMNASIUM (IN BASEMENT), SILAS WILLARD SCHOOL, 

GALESBURG, ILL. 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN, 1914, NO. 12 PLATE 35 




A. CACHE LA POUDRE CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL, COLORADO. 




B. WASHOE COMMUNITY SCHOOL, PAYETTE, IDAHO. 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN, 1914, NO. 12 PLATE 37 




TEACHER'S COTTAGE, RICHLAND COUNTY, S. C. 




SCHOOLBOYS IN WASHINGTON STATE TRANSFORMING AN OLD SCHOOLHOUSE 
INTO A MODERN COTTAGE FOR THE TEACHER. 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



5ULLETIN, 1914, NO. 12 PLATE 38 




A. TEACHER'S COTTAGE, PORTER SCHOOL, ADAIR COUNTY, MO. 




B. TEACHER'S RESIDENCE, MILL CREEK SCHOOL, RICHLAND COUNTY, S. C. 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN, 1914, NO. 12 PLATE 39 




i^^fcSSK?^^ 



.1. WASHINGTON RURAL SCHOOL; TEACHER'S COTTAGE IN CENTER. 




/;. COTTAGE FOR TEACHER; RURAL SCHOOL IN WASHINGTON STATE. 
Courtesy of Mrs. Josephine Preston, State Superintendent. 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN, 1914, NO. 12 PLATE 40 




A. MODEL RURAL SCHOOL. J, H. FELT & CO., ARCHITECTS, KANSAS CITY, MO. 




B. CLIMAX HIGH SCHOOL, PITTSYLVANIA COUNTY, VA. 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



5ULLETIN, 1914, NO. 12 PLATE 42 




A SCHOOL PRIVY IN A WESTERN STATE. 
The only provision for the young woman teacher and pupils of both sexes. 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN, 19U, NO. 12 PLATE 43 




DRINKING FOUNTAIN ATTACHED TO PUMP. 



BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



5ULLETIN, 1914, NO. 12 PLATE 44 




HOW WELL WATER MAY BE CONTAMINATED. 



BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF EDUCATION. 

[Note. — With the exceptions iixJicated, the dociinicnts issued below will l^e sent free of charge upon 
application to the Commissioner of Education, \\ a-shin^ton, D. C. Those marked with an asterisk (*) 
are no longer availaMo for free distribution, but may lie lia<l of the Superintendent of Documents, Govern- 
ment Printing (^irice, Washington, D. C, upon payment of the price stated. Remittances should be made 
In coin, currency, or money order. Stamps are not accepted. Documents marked with a dagger (t) are 
out of print.] 

1906, 

tNo. 1. Education bill of 1906 for England and Wales as it passed the House of Commons. Anna T. Smith. 
tNo. 2. German \iews of .\merican education, with particular reference to industrial development. 

William N. Ilailmann. 
*No. 3. State school systems: Legislation and judicial deckions relating to public education, Oct. 1, 1904, 

to Oct. 1, 1906. Edward C. Elliott. 15 cts. 

1907. 

tNo. 1. The continuation school in the United States. Arthur J. Jones. 

tNo. 2. Agricultural education, including nature study and school gardens. James E. Jewell. 

tNo. 3. The au.xiliary schools of Germany. Six lectures by B. Maenuel. 

tNo. 4. The elimination of pupils from school. Edward L. Thorndike. 

1908. 

tNo. 1. On the training of persons to teach agriculture in the public schools. Liberty H. Bailey. 

♦No. 2. I,ist of publications of tlie United States Bureau of Education, 1S67-1S07. 10 cts. 

*No. 3. Bibliography of education for 1C07. James Ingersoll Wyer, jr., and Martha L. Phelps. 10 cts. 

tNo. 4. Music education in the United States; schools and departments of music. Arthur L. Manchester. 

*No. 5. Education in Formosa. Julean H. Arnold. 10 cts. 

♦No. 6. The apprenticeship system in its relation to industrial education. Carroll D. Wright. 15 cts. 

♦No. 7. State school systems: II. Legislation and judicial decisions relating to public education, Oct. 1, 

1906, to Oct. 1, 190S. Edward C. Elliott. 30 cts. 
♦No. 8. Statistics of State universities and other institutions of higher education partially supported by the 

State, 1907-8. 5 cts. 

1909. 

♦No. 1. Facilities for study and research in the offices of the United States Government in Washington. 

Arthur T. Hadley. 10 cts. 
♦No. 2. Admission of Chinese students to American colleges. John Fryer. 25 cts. 
♦No. 3. Daily meals of schoolchildren. Caroline L. Hunt. 10 cts. 

tNo. 4. The teaching staS of secondary schools in the United States; amountof education, length of expe- 
rience, salaries. Edward L. Thorndike. 
No. 5. Statistics of public, society, and school libraries in 190S. 
♦No. 6. Instruction in the fine and manual arts in the United States. A statistical monograph. Henry 

T. Bailey. 15 cts. 
No. 7. Index to the Reports of the Commissioner of Education, 1S67-1907. 
♦No. S. A teacher's professional library. Classified list of 100 titles. 5 cts. 
♦No. 9. Bibliography of education for 190S-9. 10 cts. 
No. 10. Education for efficiency in railroad service. J. Shirley Eaton. 

♦No. 11. Statistics of State universities and other institutions of higher education partially supported by 
the State. 190S-9. 5 cts. 

1910. 

*No. 1. The movement for reform in the teaching of religion in the public schools of Saxony. Arley B. 

Show. 5 cts. 
No. 2. State school systems: III. Legislation and judicial decisions relating to public education, Oct. 1, 

1908. to Oct. 1. 1909. Edward C. Elliott. 
tNo. 3. List of publications of the United States Bureau of Education, 1867-1910. 
♦No. 4. The biological stations of Europe. Charles A. Kofoid. 50 cts. 
tNo. 5. American schoolhouses. Fletcher B. Dresslar. 
tNo. 6. Statistics of State universities and other institutions of higher education partially supported by 

the State, 1909-10. 



11 BULLETIN OF THE ]iUREAXJ OF EDUCATION. 

1911. 

*No. 1. Bibliography of science teaching. Sets. 

*No. 2. Opportunities for graduate study in agriculture in the United States. A. C. Monahan. 5 cts. 

*No. 3. Agencies for the improvement of teacliers in service. William C. Ruedlger. 15 cts. 

*No. 4. Report of the commission appointed to study the system of education in the public schools of 

Baltimore. 10 cts. 
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States. 5 cts. 
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tNo. 8. Examinations in mathematics, other than those set by the teacher for his own classes. 
No. 9. Mathematics in the technological schools of collegiate grade in the United States. 
tNo. 10. Bibliography of education for 1909-10. 
fNo. 11. Bibliography of child study for the years 1908-9. 
tNo. 12. Training of teachers of elementary and secondary mathematics. 
*No. 13. Mathematics in the elementary schools of the United States. 15 cts. 
*No. 14. Provision for exceptional children in the public schools. J. H. Van Sickle, Lightner Witmer, 

and Leonard P. Ayres. 10 cts. 
*No. 15. Educational system of China as recently reconstructed. Harry E. King. 10 cts. 
tNo. 16. Mathematics in the public and private secondary schools of the United States. 
tNo. 17. List of publications of the United States Bureau of Education, October, 1911. 
*No. 18. Teachers' certificate issued under general State laws and regulations. Harlan Updegi-aff. 20 cts. 
No. 19. Statistics of State universities and other institutions of higher educations partially supported by 
the State, 1910-11. 

1912. 

*No. 1. A course of study for the preparation of rural-school teachers. FredMutchlerandW. J. Craig. Sets. 
tNo. 2. Mathematics at AVest Point and Annapolis. 
*No. 3. Report of committee on uniform records and reports. 5 cts. 
*No. 4. Mathematics in technical secondary schools in the United States. 5 cts. 
*No. 5. A study of expenses of city school systems. Harlan Updegrafl. 10 cts. 
*No. 6. Agricultural education in secondary schools. 10 cts. 
*No. 7. Educational status of nursing. M. Adelaide Nutting. 10 cts. 
*No. 8. Peace day. Fannie Fern Andrews. [Later publication, 1913, No. 12.] 5 cts. 
*No. 9. Country schools for city boys. William S. Myers. 10 cts. 
tNo. 10. Bibliography of education in agriculture and home economics. 
tNo. 11. Current educational topics. No. I. 

tNo. 12. Dutch schools of New Netherland and colonial New York. William H. ICilpatrick. 
*No. 13. Lifluences tending to improve the work of the teacher of mathematics. 5 cts. 
*No. 14. Report of the American commissiohers of the international commission on the teaching of mathe- 
matics. 10 cts. 
tNo. 15. Current educational topics, No. II. 
tNo. 16. The reorganized school playground. Henry S. Curtis. 
*No. 17. The Montessori system of education. Anna T. Smith. 5 cts. 
tNo. 18. Teaching language through agriculture and domestic science. M. A. Leiper. 
*No. 19. Professional distribution of college and university graduates. Bailey B. Burritt. 10 cfs. 
tNo. 20. Readjustment of a rural high school to the needs of the community. H. A. Brown. 
tNo. 21. Urban and rural common-school statistics. Harlan Updegraff and William R. Hood. 

No. 22. Public and private high schools. 

No. 23. Special collections in libraries in the United States. W. Dawson Johnston and I^dore G. Mudge. 
tNo. 24. Current educational topics. No. III. 

tNo. 25. List of publications of the United States Bureau of Education, 1912. 
tNo. 26. Bibliography of child study for the years 1910-1911. 

No. 27. History of public-school education in Arkansas. Stephen B. Weeks. 
*No. 28. Cultivating school grounds in Wake County, N. C. Zebulon Judd. 5 cts. 

No. 29. Bibliography of the teachmg of mathematics, 1900-1912. David Eugene Smith and Charle 
Goldziher. 

No. 30. Latin-American universities and special schools. Edgar E. Brandon. 

No. 31. Educational directory, 1912. 

No. 32. Bibliography of exceptional children and their education. Arthur MacDonald. 
tNo. 33. Statistics of State universities and other institutions of higher education partially supported by 
the State, 1912. 

1913. 

No. 1. Monthly record of current educational publications, January, 1913. 
*No. 2. Training courses for rural teachers. A. C. Monahan and R. H. Wright. 5 cts. 
*No. 3. The teaching of modern languages in the United States. Charles H. Handschln. 15 cts. 
*No. 4. Present standards of higher education in the United States. George E. MacLean. 20 cts. 
tNo. 5. Monthly record of current educational publications. February, 1913. 



BULLETIN OF THE BUBEAV OF EDUCATION. Ill 

*No. (i. Agricultural instruction in high schools. C. H. Robison and F. U. Jcnks. 10 cts. 
fNo. 7. CoUcgo entrance requirements. Clarence D. Kingslcy. . 
♦No. 8. The status of rural education in the United States. A. C. Monahan. 15 cts. 
fNo. 9. Consular reports on continual ion schools in Prussia. 
tNo. 10. Monthly record of current eduational puMications, March, 1913. 
fNo. 11. Monthly record of current educational pul lications, April, 1913. 
*No. 12. 'I'ho promotion of peace. Fannie Fern Andrews. 10 cts. 

*No. 13. Standards and tests for measurinf,' the elliciency of schools or systems of schools. Report of tho 
committee of the National Council of Education. George D. Strayer, chairman. 5 cts. 

No. 14. Agricultural instruction in secondary schools. 
fNo. \.'). Monthly record of current educational pu' licalions. May, 1913. 
♦No. 10. Bibliography of medical inspection and healtli .supervision. 1,'j cts. 
*No. 17. A trade school for girls. A preliminary investigation in a typical manufaeturiiij; city, Worcester, 

Mass. 10 cts. 
♦No. 18. The fifteenth international congress on hygiene and demography. Fletcher 15. l^resslar. 10 els. 
♦No. 19. German industrial education and its lessons for the United States. Holmes Beckwith. Ij cts. 
♦No. U'O. Illiteracy in the United States. 10 cts. 

fNo. 21. Monthly record of current educational publications, June, 1913. 
♦No. 22. Bil liography of industrial, vocational, and trade education. 10 cts. 
♦No. 23. Tho Georgia Club at the State Normal School, Athens, Ga., for the study of rural sociology. E. C. 

Branson. 10 cts. 
♦No. 24. A comparison of pu'jlic education in Germany and in the United States. Georg Kerschensteiner. 

5 cts. 
♦No. 25. Industrial education in Columbus, Ga. Roland B. Daniel. 5 cts. 
tNo. 20. Good roads arbor day. Susan B. Sipe. 
fNo. 27. Prison schools. A. C. Hill. 

♦No. 28. Expressions on education by American statesmen and publicists. 5 cts. 
♦No. 29. Accredited secondary schools in the United States. Kendric C. Babcock. 10 cts. 
*No. 30. Education in the South. 10 cts. 
*No. 31. Special features in city school systems. 10 cts. 

No. 32. Educational survey of Montgomery Coimty, Md. 

tNo. 33. Monthly record of current educational publications, September, 1913. 
♦No. 34. Pension systems in Great Britain. Raymond \V. Sies. 10 cts. 
*No. 35. A list of books suited to a high-school lil)rary. 15 cts. 
♦No. 36. Report on the work of the Bureau of Education for the natives of Alaska, 1911-12. 10 cts. 

No. 37. Monthly record of current educational publications, October, 1913. 
♦No. 38. Eeonomy of time in education. 10 cts. 

No. 39. Elementary industrial school of Cleveland, Ohio. W. N. Hailmanu. 
♦No. 40. The rearganized school playground. Henry S. Curtis. 10 cts. 

No. 41. The reorganization of secondary education. 

No. 42. An experimental rural school at Winthrop College. H. S. Browne. 
♦No. 43. Agriculture and rural-life day; material for its ol servance. Eugene C. Brooks. 10 cts. 
♦No. 44. Organized health work in schools. E. B. Hoag. 10 cts. 

No. 45. Monthly record of current educational publications, November, 1913. 
♦No. 46. Educational directory, 1913. 15 cts. 

♦No. 47. Teaching material in Government publications. F. K. Noyes. 10 cts. 
♦No. 48. School hygiene. W. Carson Ryan, jr. 15 cts. 

No. 49. The Farragut School, a Tennessee country-life high school. A. C. Monahan and Adams Phillips. 

No. 50. The Fitchburg plan of cooperative industrial education. M. R. McCaim. 
♦No. 51. Education of the immigrant. 10 cts. 
♦No. 52. Sanitary schoolhouses. Legal requirements in Indiana and Ohio. 5 cts. 

No. 53. Monthly record of current educational publications, December, 1913. 

No. 54. Consular reports on industrial education in Germany. 

No. 55. Legislation and judicial decisions relating to education, October 1, 1909, to Octolier 1, 1912. James 

C. Boykin and William R. Hood. 
tNo. 56. Some suggestive features of the Swiss school system. William Knox Tate. 

No. 57. Elementary education in England, with special reference to London, Liverpool, and Manchester. 
I. L. Kandel. 

No. 58. Educational system of rural Denmark. Harold W. Foght. 

No. 59. Bibliography of education for 1910-11. 

No. 60. Statistics of State universities and other institutions of higher education partially supported by 
the State, 1912-13. 

1914. 

♦No. 1. Monthly record of current educational publications, January, 1914. 5 cts. 

No. 2. Compulsory school attendance. 

No. 3. Monthly record of current educational publications, February, 1914, 

No. 4. The school and the start in life. Meyer Bloomfield. 



IV BULLETIN OF THE BUEEAU OF EDUCATION. "^ 

No. 5. The folk high schools of Denmark. L. L. Friend. 
No. 6. Kindergartens in the United States. 

No. 7. Monthly record of current educational putllcations, March, 1914. 

No. 8. The Massachusetts home-project plan of vocational agricultural education. E. W. Stimson. 
No. 9. Monthly record of current educational publications, April, 1914. 
*No. 10. Physical growth and school progress. B. T. Baldwin. 25 cts. 
No. 11. Monthly record of current educational putlications, May, 1914. 
No. 12. Rural schoolhouses and grounds. F. B. Dresslar. 
No. 13. Present status of drawing and art ia the elementary and secondary schools of the United States. 

Royal B. Farnum. 
No. 14. "Vocational guidance. 

No. 15. Monthly record of current educational publications. Index. 
No. 16. The tangible rewards of teaching. James C. Boykin and Roberta King. 
No. 17. Sanitary survey of the schools of Orange County, Va. H'. K. Flaimagan. 
No. 18. The public school system of Gary, Ind. William P. Burris. 
No. 19. University extension ia the United States. Louis E. Reber. 

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